True Love's Kiss
by museless22
Summary: Determined to break the curse holding his town in thrall, Henry Mills has an epiphany. Eventual Swan Queen.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimers: Characters/show/etc not owned, just borrowed.

A/N: First story I've written in a loooooong time. Eventual Swan Queen. The title's a work in progress.

Henry had thought in the beginning that breaking the curse would be as simple as getting Snow White and her Charming to share a kiss. It was a logical conclusion; If true love's kiss could break any curse and theirs was the truest of loves, then surely that was the answer.

Unfortunately, his perfect plan seemed to have failed. Prince Charming, now David Nolan, had been out of his coma for weeks now and while he hadn't actually seen it for himself Henry was pretty sure he and Miss Blanchard had probably kissed at this point. The adults weren't anywhere near as discreet as they thought they were and he was ten, not blind.

As there had been no grand final battles or curse shattering, clearly their kisses weren't the ones required.

Which set the wheels in his brain turning once more. It was as he lay in bed one night, having indulged a softly planted kiss to the forehead from his mother and muttered a terse goodnight that the seed of an idea began to blossom. The Evil Queen had cast the curse. What if, maybe, just maybe, the required kiss had to be hers?

This latest theory opened up a whole new can of worms that he wasn't entirely prepared to deal with. He had initially assumed that at some point the Evil Queen would have to die. But killing was evil and that wasn't how good was supposed to win, right? Emma had proved that.

So maybe his adopted mother didn't have to die. Maybe the way to bring back the happy endings was to help her find hers. That sounded more like the sort of thing a good person would do.

The notion had relieved a weight in his chest that he hadn't even realized had been present.

The problem, however, was that he didn't have the slightest clue how one was supposed to go about finding an Evil Queen's true love and on this point his book didn't offer up any answers.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Henry started, jerking away from the cinnamon embellished cocoa whose depths he'd been studying so intently to find that he was no longer sitting alone at Granny's stool lined bar.

Mr. Gold's dark eyes weren't unkind and the smile was genuine enough but Henry felt a shiver crawl down his spine none the less. He hadn't figured out who the pawn shop owner's Fairytale persona was just yet but he couldn't shake the feeling that it probably wasn't one of the good guys. What sort of hero tried to buy babies, after all? In any case it unnerved him that he hadn't even heard the tap tap tap of the man's cane as he approached.

"Just thinking."

"Must be pretty deep thoughts. Surely cocoa isn't so puzzling?"

Henry watched a smiling Ruby slide a steaming to-go cup across the counter to Mr. Gold and accept the crisp dollar bills offered in payment, gnawing on his bottom lip in thought. It was a habit he had noticed he shared with Emma and so he relished doing it at any given opportunity.

"Just... Trying to solve a problem."

Mr. Gold took his change as the waitress returned from the till and placed the handful of coins in a dapper suit pocket, but made no move to leave the diner as Henry had been hoping he would. Fortunately he didn't sit either, so with any luck he wouldn't hover much longer.

"Anything I might assist with?"

Henry sighed, dipping a finger into his mug's drooping, mostly melted whipped topping and stirring listlessly. "Not unless you know how to get someone to love pure evil."

Mr. Gold raised an eyebrow at that, taking up his coffee in one hand while the other curled more securely around his cane. "I have often found, young Henry, that the line between hate and love is thin and easily becomes twisted. Perhaps the solution you're looking for is simpler than you think."

The bell over the diner's door clanged as a clearly flustered Sheriff Swan backed into it.

"Yeah? Well... Well...Shut up!"

Henry felt a smile tug at his lips. There were times when his birth mother's behavior made him wonder if he wasn't the more mature between the two of them. Of course, he didn't even need to to lean back and peer out the window to know who had Emma angry enough to be reduced to playground insults. Everyone else in Storybrooke, everyone but _her,_ loved their new sheriff.

Evidently the dragon had left work for the day. Probably time for him to be heading home then, but not before a few stolen moments with his hero. "Emma!"

The sheriff whirled, deflated as she apparently realized for the first time that she had a fairly public audience. "Oh. Hey kid."

A snickering Ruby placed a fresh mug of cocoa on the counter next to Henry's. "Here, Sheriff. Sounds like you need this." She flashed a toothy smile at Henry that he returned bashfully before whisking back to the kitchen in a flash of red and Emma took up the stool on Henry's far side. The boy was immediately engulfed in the comforting smell of leather and the blond's sweet perfume and his heart felt just a little bit warmer.

"Well then." Mr. Gold spoke up and Henry spun back around precariously on his stool, having almost forgotten him. "Good luck with that problem of yours, Henry. I hope you find what you're looking for."

He patted Henry's shoulder in a way that wasn't the least bit reassuring before departing the diner and the boy couldn't help but frown. He returned his focus to Emma with a shake of his head, prepared to ask what horrible thing she was meant to have been responsible for now when suddenly it hit him.

The saviour. Emma was the saviour. Destined to break the curse. If the curse was to broken by the queen finding true love's kiss...

Emma ruffled his hair affectionately, asking how his day at school was and Henry launched into a story about his latest science project, all the while his brain churning with this newest revelation.

Operation Cobra was going to be even more difficult than he'd thought.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Can I just say, constraining one's self to a ten year old's perspective isn't quite as easy as I'd thought it would be, I'm not sure I've done it justice lol. I hope you enjoy anyway.

Phase one, Henry decided (And carefully plotted out in an unlabeled notebook, so as not to lose track), was getting them to spend time together without the situation dissolving into blows. He had never witnessed one of their arguments turning physical before but he well remembered the week, that dreadful week following Graham's death, they had both walked around sporting nasty purple-green bruises. The dots connected themselves. Which limited his options to public places and crowds big enough to embarrass them into behaving.

Finally he had a reason to appreciate his mother's refusal to let him drop out of basketball ("You'll finish out the season. My son won't be a quitter.") when he'd first wanted to. The Saturday match he had previously had every intention of skipping out on became a golden opportunity to kickstart 'The Plan' (He hadn't settled on an operation title for this side bar of 'Cobra' yet). Unfortunately getting them both to attend was more than likely going to require some manipulation on his part. He hadn't willingly invited his mother along in ages and the mayor had acquiesced to his hostility without complaint, he assumed because she hadn't actually cared in the first place. As for Emma, he hadn't shared this detail of his life with her yet but he knew if she had the time getting her to show up would be as easy as asking. And if she didn't have the time, as easy as pouting and a calculated puppy-eyed stare.

When he got home from school he found his mother in the kitchen, stirring something steaming in a pot on the stove. He hovered in the doorway a moment, one shoe on and the other discarded haphazardly on the stairway, taking a moment to study the mayor unobserved. It had occurred to him earlier, as he had scoured his book for anything that might aid his plan, that he didn't actually know her at all. Every detail he had ever gleaned from their life together, every fact she had ever shared with him , every habit- all were lies or constructs of the curse. He knew nothing of the real woman, the queen she truly was.

Nothing substantial, anyway.

She had possessed magical powers. She had been bitter and angry, for reasons the book evidently deemed inconsequential. She liked apples. She was evil.

It had been enough at first, but he was coming to realise that these were shallow facts, two dimensional. They didn't create a whole person.

As he watched her stiff back, still dressed in a button-up and pin striped suit pants with impossible heels, saw her take a thoughtful taste from of a spoonful of what he realized was spaghetti sauce, he wondered if she even liked to cook. Had it been strange for her, when she first came to this world, to use something like a stove? It must have all seemed so alien. How much did she actually remember? Everything, surely.

He was bursting to ask. There were so many things he wanted to know.

"Hey mom."

He let his backpack slump to the floor and took up a seat on one of the tall stools she kept around the kitchen island. She looked around at him with such genuine surprise written all over her face that he almost felt guilty. Lately he never willingly sought her out for anything, never spent any more time with her than he had to.

The twinge was quickly pushed aside. Whatever else he did or didn't know about her, she was still evil. In that regard she hadn't changed.

At Least... not yet, at anyrate. But if his undertaking was successful, if he could get Emma to love her, and vice versa, then maybe they could save her. Maybe then she would love _him_ too, the way she always claimed but he knew had to be false.

Regina recovered from her shock quickly. "Henry! How was school?"

"Good I guess." Henry shrugged and folded his arms atop the island, leaning forward to plant his chin on the crux of an elbow. She smiled at his continued presence, looking almost delightfully puzzled, and turned back to the stove to turn down the burners. "Dinner's almost ready. Why don't you go wash up?"

"Sure." He said, but didn't move. He was still digging for courage, hoping she wouldn't see right through him to the plotting he was doing. Hoping she wouldn't say no for other reasons too, but those were ignored. "Actually, mom, I wanted to ask... see, there's a game on Saturday. I was kinda hoping you would go. You know, to watch me? I'm actually getting better, I think."

That got her attention. He watched her dark brows knit in thought, no doubt mentally reviewing her schedule for an excuse not to attend. She surprised him however by smiling, nodding. "Yes, of course, Henry. I would love to."

His face stretched in a jaw splitting smile without his consent and he ducked down to scoop up his discarded backpack.

"Cool."

#########################

"Hey Emma, what are you doing Saturday?"

They were walking around downtown with no real destination in mind, just stealing time together before he had to get home. They'd gotten ice cream cones from Granny's and the sweet, rarely indulged in treat was dripping all over his fingers but it was so good Henry didn't much care. Emma had the smallest dab of chocolate on her nose and he had to stifle his giggles, determined to see just how long it was going to take the Sheriff to notice.

She frowned, thinking. "Um... Nothing, actually. That's my day off. Why, what's up?"

"I have this thing. A basketball game. I was hoping you would come and watch?"

"Oh! I didn't know you played any sports." He shrugged, his best imitation of her, and she smiled before saying, "Wait, won't your mom be there? I really don't think that'd go over well, kid. She might string me from the rafters or something."

Henry swallowed his bite of waffle cone before uttering the prepared not-lie, trying to look dejected enough to be convincing but not so much as to be over the top. "She never goes. She's always got work and stuff."

The sympathy and brief flare of anger that flashed over Emma's face told him the statement had been just true enough to slip past her lie detecting super power, just as he'd hoped.

"Yeah. Yeah, okay. I'll be there. I'd love to."

They reached the end of the block just as Leroy came barreling around the corner and he pulled up just short of ploughing into them. His perpetual scowl deepened, about to say something scathing no doubt, when he suddenly burst into thunderous laughter.

"Uh, Sheriff, you got a little somethin'." He finally managed, just as Emma was starting to frown in annoyance, "Just there." He tapped the broad tip of his nose and then brushed past them, still roaring with laughter.

Emma touched a finger to the end of her nose, coming away sticky with chocolate, and groaned. "Ah! Henry! Why didn't you tell me?" She scrubbed at her face with a red jacket sleeve while the forgotten cone in her other hand dripped ice cream all over the sidewalk... and the toes of her boots.

Henry just grinned.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I couldn't sleep so I decided to write. I fear I may be spoiling you all with such frequent updates. ;) Also, the reviews and follows are very much appreciated. I wasn't expecting such a good response; It makes my muse happy.

The jersey was a little bit big on him and Henry tugged uncomfortably at the shoulders as he stood in front of the bathroom mirror, taking in the big white number eleven on his chest and the messy hair that wouldn't quite lay flat no matter how he combed it. He wasn't the shortest boy on his team but he was definitely on the smaller side, still waiting for that pre teen growth spurt that seemed to have hit up everyone but him.

"You can do this." He told his reflection, trying on a smile. "Emma's going to be there."

Just the thought of her filled him with warmth. He could be brave and strong, just like her. If she was there with him, he could do anything.

"Henry! Come on, we're going to be late!"

"Comeing!"

He bent to give the laces of his sneakers one last firm tug before thundering down the stairs, shoulders set with determination.

He was going to do fine at the game and his plan was going to work. It had to.

###################################

Emma was standing at the foot of the bleachers as they weaved their way through crowds of families into the gym and he saw Regina immediately tense beside him, expression falling from almost content to murderous glare. Her usual swagger, though muted by her jeans and a casual blouse and flats, turned to an almost predatory stalk and Henry briefly feared his plan might unravel before it had even begun.

When she stopped, just on the line of being too deep in Emma's person space to be decent, he carefully stepped in between them, turning himself into a buffer.

Henry felt his mother's arm settle around his shoulder and stiffened. Then, he surprised them both by allowing it, though he couldn't quite bring himself to relax into her embrace. He hoped the gesture, so rare these days, would make her more amicable. After all, this first step forward hinged on getting her to not be a jerk tonight. Somehow he had to break open her shell. Emma could never love Mayor Mills, the hardass. She might, however, fall for Regina the mother, the kisser of cuts and bruises, the woman who liked to tell bedtime stories and Sunday morning snuggles. He hadn't seen that woman in a long time but if any of her was still in there somewhere, if any of it was genuine and not an Evil Queen's farce, he had to dig deep and exhume her.

"Miss Swan. What are you doing here?"

Emma shoved her hands in the pockets of her jeans, a posture Henry recognized as defensive even after knowing her for such a short stretch of time. "Henry asked me to come."

'_I thought it was just going to be me.'_ remained unspoken but was evident in the brief, green eyed glare she shot his way.

Henry gave a subtle, apologetic shrug and tilted his head back to look up at his mother. Storm clouds brewed in her dark eyes as she warred with her need to snark and belittle and ultimately send the other woman packing and her want to maintain this fledgling connection being offered up by her son. Henry reached up to grasp the hand on his shoulder, giving it the most fleeting of squeezes.

"Very well." She dropped a brief kiss to the top of his head and withdrew. "Good luck, Henry."

Emma watched the Mayor ascend the bleachers before turning on Henry, hands on her hips in a gesture that was more surprised than angry. "You lied to me."

Henry flashed her his most endearing smile, scuffing the toe of one of his sneakers against the smooth gym floor. "Not really. I never actually said she wasn't coming."

Her mouth hung open for a moment before she recovered, shaking her head. "Great. Has anybody ever told you you're too smart for your own good?" She reached out to ruffle his hair and he had the good grace to look contrite.

"I'm sorry. I just really wanted to share this with you. With both of you."

Green eyes softened and he knew now was the time to hit her, just when she was feeling a little bit guilty and a little bit warm fuzzy from his admission of wanting her here, ensconced in every aspect of his life. "Would you sit with her?" He lowered his voice, conspiratorially, "You know, so she doesn't do anything... embarrassing?"

Regina wouldn't, Henry knew. She would sit, surrounded by a personal bubble of space so impressive one might think she had an invisible shield, stoic and regal as always. She wouldn't interact with the other parents, wouldn't clap or cheer or holler or any of the upteen other mildly annoying habits parents indulged in when watching their child at a sporting event. The only way to know she was even paying attention at all would be in her rapt, unwavering gaze.

But Emma didn't know that. He could see by the set lines of her face, an expression somewhere between determination and 'I'd rather be getting teeth pulled' that she didn't like it but was going to do as he asked. It was hard to hide his relief and growing feeling of victory. He let himself think, just for a moment, that this thing might actually work.

"Yeah. Okay, kid." She raised a hand to point at him sharply, mockingly stern. "You owe me one."

"Deal."

"Better hurry up. Your coach is giving us the death glare."

Henry glanced over to see coach Frederick waving him over, already surrounded by the rest of the team. He flashed Emma one last winning smile before jogging over to join them.

When Emma reached the top of the bleachers where Regina had situated herself, surprisingly alone given the massive throng of people, the Mayor immediately scowled, mouth opening no doubt to tell her to buzz off, in less polite terms. Emma held up a hand to stall her, silently willing the woman to shut up for once and just listen.

"Look, I don't like it either but the kid obviously wants us here. Both of us. To support _him. _Whatever you may think of me, this is important to him. So can we just be civil for the next hour-" She hoped it wouldn't be longer than that anyway, she'd never actually been to a basketball game before, "and let him have his moment?"

Regina's ire didn't lift but she inclined her head in stiff necked concession. "A truce then, for now. But if you were planning to sit with me, think again."

Emma plopped down on the bench beside her, leaning back to stretch out her arms on the seat behind them. "It's all full up everywhere else anyway. Lucky you're scary enough to leave us some room."

Regina folded her arms across her chest, poised even when pouting, and leaned as far away as could possibly be done without toppling over. She didn't leave, however, and Emma waved cheerfully down at Henry, who'd turned to look up at them.

'_See, kid? See the things I do for you?' _

##################################

Throughout the course of the game Henry stole furtive glances at his mothers (An expression he had decided to try out in his head, just to see how it felt. It was strange to contemplate the possibility of a dual parental unit), relieved to see that they were coexisting peacefully. Even conversing at intervals, though briefly. It was more than he had dared hope for, so early into it.

In the end, his team emerged victorious, though it wasn't so much due to his personal contribution. Basketball was clearly not a sport he was destined to (There was too much Emma in him, fast but prone to bouts of clumsiness), but it had been fun, perhaps for the first time ever since he had started playing.

They were both waiting for him when he burst from the locker room after the coach's pep talk. His grin stretched from ear to ear, sweaty and tired but happy. He was pleased enough to try and press his luck just a little bit further.

"Can we go for ice cream mom?"

He didn't directly ask if Emma could come along but he reached out to take her hand, making it implied.

Regina eyed the two of them, grinning at each other in such a similar impish way that it was almost endearing, with distaste. "If Miss Swan is agreeable then... I don't see why not."

He swept her into a hug that took her off guard, and she carefully placed her hands on the backs of his shoulders, smiling in spite of herself.

The expression was the purest, most open thing Emma had ever seen cross the Mayor's face and she couldn't help but wonder just how long it had been since the boy had voluntarily hugged her.

Then Henry grabbed them both by the hand, one on either side, to drag them out of the school and she realized she had somehow just been pulled into spending more time in the volatile woman's presence.

_Crap_.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I really should develop better sleeping habits. Anywho, thanks for the continued reviews. A fed muse is a happy muse.

Henry had plopped himself down firmly in the middle of the bench on one side of their booth, the better to converse with them both, he claimed. The adults hadn't grumbled or audibly complained but they had manipulated as much room out of the small space as was possible, leaving Emma in constant fear of toppling over the edge. They had relaxed somewhat as Henry regaled them with a play by play of the game, as if they hadn't been there watching for themselves, and by the time Ruby returned with their ice cream orders (Just coffee for the Mayor, who refused to partake of the sugary confection) there was a little less venom in the air.

"I never really got into sports." Emma said once Henry's retelling had wound down.

"Really?"

"Nah. I mean, I can run like hell and I'm pretty good with hand to hand, obviously, but I never jived with the whole _team_ thing." She glanced over at Regina, who was silently contemplating the black depths of her coffee mug (And Emma thought, _'Black like her soul!'_ with an internal giggle at her own corniness.) and asked, "What about you, Madam Mayor? Ever play any sports?"

Regina withdrew from her thoughts to blink at them in confusion and it was impossible to tell if it was because she was surprised to suddenly be pulled into the conversation or if she genuinely couldn't think of a way to answer the question.

"Oh. I... I was homeschooled. There wasn't really any opportunity."

'_Well, that explains your personal skills.' _Emma thought.

Henry, meanwhile, was staring at his mother with the most peculiar expression and Emma almost groaned, seeing the fairy tale conspiracy weaving itself in his little imagination. Was it really so strange to think that this woman, who more than likely had extremely loaded parents, hadn't received a public education?

"That must have been lonely."

Regina didn't take the bait, instead leaning across the table to thrust a napkin at her son, gesturing that he scrub his chin. "Honestly, Henry. Mind your manners."

She caught a glance of Emma out of the corner of her eye who, in the course of gesturing along with her words while holding her spoon in hand, had managed to get a dab of whipped cream just shy of her eyebrow and it was readily apparent where he got it from.

Emma jerked as a wad of napkins hit her upside the head and Henry burst into a fit of giggles.

Emma whirled to glare at the other woman but Regina merely sipped at her mug, prim and unruffled as ever. "Really, I see why you two get on so well, Miss Swan. You're both children."

Emma flipped her spoon around to use the smooth surface of its back like a mirror and sighed at her distorted reflection. "Oops."

#################################

When finally Regina decided they'd loitered in Granny's long enough (So long, in fact, that the place was almost empty) and that it was time to get Henry home and into bed, she told the boy to go wait in the car for a moment while she had a word with the Sheriff.

The woman in question, hovering just behind them in the diner's doorway, briefly pondered the thought of running away before Regina turned to deal with her. She was pretty spry, even with the Mayor in flats for a change she could probably outrun her. She dismissed the silly notion as Henry waved goodbye to her, his goofy but delighted grin deciding for her that she would stay and take whatever lecture Regina wanted to dole out. It was worth it to see him so happy.

Regina waited until the car door closed firmly behind him and then turned to fix the blond with a steely gaze.

"It occurs to me, Miss Swan, that my son has been trying in his own way to tell us something tonight."

Emma peered over the Mayor's shoulder, snorting at the little nose that was quite obviously pressed up against the glass of the Mercedes' passenger window to watch them. "Yeah, I got that."

"I don't like you, Miss Swan-"

"Gee, give it to me straight why don't ya'-"

"I don't like you. And if I had my way you would be gone from this town and as far away from my family as possible. However, now that he's met you, now that he knows you, that's just not possible. Now that he's found you... Well, there's no putting that cat back in the bag." Regina's stoic facade cracked and for a moment it was easy to see just how much this admission pained her. Emma shifted uncomfortably beneath the intensity of the other woman's dark eyed gaze, guilt blooming in her chest.

She had wondered, on occasion, if they might have been better off if she had left when she'd initially promised she would. Perhaps the mother and son's broken relationship would have found a way to mend itself. The Fairy Tale phase would have faded and eventually he would realize that his mother, while closed off and very possibly emotionally stunted (And there was a story there that the investigator in Emma was just dying to uncover), wasn't evil. Mostly.

Not in the way he thought, in any case.

Or maybe he would have just run away again and again, chasing after the hero he thought he needed.

"So, like it or not," Regina was saying, "You are a part of his life now. Our constant arguing is clearly hurting him and that's... Well, that's something I promised myself I would never do."

She was so earnest that Emma wanted to ask who had hurt _her_, if it had in fact been a parent that had molded her into this bitter and sometimes downright vindictive shell of a person, but she knew the question was too personal and would have them taking two steps back. She wasn't sure yet that they were actually taking any steps forward but it felt like they might.

Baby steps, certainly, but steps.

Daylight had well and truly seeped away at this point. The glow that spilled from the windows and door of the diner and a street lamp whose flickering bulb looked like it was on its last leg of life were the only illumination left to them. The dim lighting was doing interesting things to Regina's face and it struck Emma that the woman was really quite beautiful, when she wasn't wrapped up in a veil of rage and spitting insults.

'_Where did that come from?'_

Emma shakes it off and tugs at the smooth red leather of her jacket sleeves before crossing her arms against the growing evening chill. "What exactly are you proposing?"

"I am proposing that I might be amenable to you spending time with him each week. Supervised, of course."

"That-That would be great!" Emma knew that 'supervision' would mean Regina hovering over their every move, but it was something. Probably more than the measly ten minutes she got to share with her son before school and certainly healthier than the times when he decided to skip out on his classes all together just to seek her out. "When? How long?"

"We'll work out a schedule. Something that doesn't disrupt his school work. Dinner, maybe. A few hours on weekends."

"Yeah. Yeah, sure. That would be great. Thank you, Regina ,this is-"

"I'm not doing it for you, dear. You see, this thing you've started, in deciding to stay here, it doesn't get to be at your discretion." Regina stalked forward into Emma's personal space, once again showing a complete lack of boundaries. An extra button had come loose on her blouse, Emma noticed, and then immediately chided herself. That was the last thing she needed, for Regina to catch her leering. Not that she was. Not at all. "You don't get to traipse in and out of his life as you see fit. You have a responsibility to him now and children need structure."

Emma nodded, willing the other woman to see that she _got _it, that she understood what this was costing and she wasn't trying to cause either of them pain. "Okay."

Regina took a step back, rocking on her heels. "We'll hammer out the details on Monday, we still have that budget meeting. It'll be easy to discuss it then."

She turned without another word and Emma watched her slip behind the wheel before walking down the block to where she parked her bug with a little extra bounce in her step.

All things considered, the day had gone swimmingly well.

Regina hadn't eviscerated her, anyway. There was victory in that.

#######################################

Henry waited for his mother to start the car before speaking, cautious in spite of his glee because her face was as raw as he'd ever seen it, "That was fun, wasn't it mom?"

She tapped her fingers against the steering wheel, taking her bottom lip between her teeth, and then her ever ever present mask slipped firmly back into place. He met her eyes in the rear view mirror but their dark depths were an unreadable void.

"It wasn't entirely unpleasant." She allowed at last, and Henry's face split in an uncontrollable grin.

Phase one was go.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Not feeling so great about this one. The muse is running out of steam. Or cider, possibly. Mmmmmm.

Every morning, it was decided, Emma would walk Henry to school. Wednesdays she would walk him home and see that he started his homework and then (Because this was too much time alone together, probably) they would have dinner as a group and Emma could tuck him in (And here she wanted to ask really, did a ten year old need tucking in, but it was time, damnit , and she'd take whatever she was given.). Every other Saturday she was permitted to come over and spend a few hours with him.

Emma wasn't sure exactly what constituted a few hours but she wasn't inclined to press Regina's generosity and risk the arrangement being called off before it had begun.

Tuesday when she showed up to collect him, Henry all but leaped down the front steps into her arms and even though they had already basically been doing this, the officialness of her inclusion in his life somehow felt so much better.

They'd made it almost halfway in comfortable silence when Henry asked, "Emma, what do you think of my mom?"

'_That she's kind of a bitch.'_ were the first words that came to mind but Emma curbed the inclination for the sake of innocent ears. "I think she's got some pretty serious issues. She's not all bad though. I mean, you turned out pretty well, yeah?" She cuffed him on the shoulder playfully.

"Do you hate her?"

"What? No! I mean-I don't think... No." Emma shoved her hands in her jean pockets, frowning curiously. "What's with all the questions, kid?"

"Nothing."

Nothing sounded suspiciously like something but Emma had no idea what his angle was.

"I don't think she has any friends. Maybe you being around will be good for her too." he said after several more steps taken in silence.

Ah. So this was more of his scheming, trying to get them to get along. Their fighting must have affected him more than he let on. "Really? You want me to be friends with the _Evil Queen_?"

He shrugged. "You're supposed to help people, right?"

Huh. _That_ was new. She supposed it was probably a good thing; at least he wasn't calling for her to 'slay' the other woman or something. Maybe he was getting over this fairy tale thing all on his own. "Right."

###############################################

The next day saw the Sheriff looking to the evening with something like dread but she kept telling herself it was for Henry. For Henry's sake she could put up with Regina for a few hours. And anyway, there _was_ an upside; The Mayor had evidently decided they would be seeing too much of each other now to come poking around the office. It was amazing the amount of work Emma could get done when she wasn't constantly being interrupted by nitpicky nonsense.

There was something delightfully domestic about helping the kid with his homework. Not that he needed it; Her hovering presence ended up being more moral support than actual guidance. He whisked through his work without issue and it struck her again that he really was an amazing little boy.

When he had finished and Regina still hadn't returned from work they settled into the living room for a few rounds of Mario Kart that had Emma seriously testing her verbal filter and inventing several new child safe expletives ("Mother trucking turtle shells!" being one of the more colorful.).

When the clock struck six and the Mayor still hadn't made an appearance, Emma asked worriedly, "Is she always so late?"

"It's Wednesday." Henry shrugged, taking advantage of her distraction to bump her car off the road. "She goes to the cemetery on Wednesdays."

Of course. Emma vaguely recalled her saying as much before she'd clocked her that one night. She'd been wondering why Regina had picked the middle of the week for her Henry time; The woman must have wanted a little more time for herself.

It wasn't even five minutes later when they heard the front door groan and the unmistakable click-clack of heels in the hallway. Regina checked in on them just long enough to see that Henry was in one piece before disappearing into the kitchen and Emma let herself relax. This wasn't so bad. She could handle this every week.

Dinner was almost a pleasant affair (And damn but Regina could cook). Henry filled the silence with chatter about school- So and so hadn't closed the cage door after playing with the class hamster, after which Mary Margaret had apparently led a pretty lively search party- and the adults managed to ignore eachother and focus entirely on him. It was incredible, Emma thought, how well they could get along when they refrained from speaking to each other.

Finally Regina told Henry it was time to go get ready for bed. He paused before bolting up the stairs, gaze flickering between them. "Emma's staying a while, right?"

Emma quirked a brow at him, wondering just what exactly those eager little eyes were thinking, because they'd essentially spent all afternoon together and surely her presence wasn't still so exciting.

"_Yes_." Regina turned him by the shoulders and gave him a gentle nudge up the stairs. "She'll be up to tuck you in when you're ready."

She watched him sharply until he'd disappeared into the bathroom and then turned to gather up the dishes still left on the table and ferry them back into the kitchen. Emma collected the glasses she'd left behind and followed.

Regina didn't acknowledge her presence as she deposited the glassware on the counter and Emma hovered, watching the dish soap billow into fluffy bubbles. The brunette was already elbow deep in it, the sleeves of her crisp white blouse rolled up to the bicep, when she made up her mind.

"Let me." Emma slid in beside her, hip bumping the other woman from her place in front of the sink as she pried the plate she'd been scrubbing from soapy fingers. "Silver lining of the kid having another parent in his life? You don't have to do everything alone anymore."

Regina leaned back into the counter with her hips and folded her arms snugly about her own rib cage. She watched Emma scrub with a scowl twisting at her lips but made no move to intervene. "You are_ not_ his 'other parent'. You're just-"

"What? You really got a better way to define this thing? Fine, call me the 'glorified babysitter' then, if it makes you happy. Doesn't mean you can't let me help out."

Regina let out a heavy breath. "I don't _need_ your help."

"I know you don't. You've managed to raise an amazing kid while balancing a full time job as complex as running an entire town. You've more than proved your self sufficiency. I don't know how you do it, honestly." Emma smiled sideways at her, rinsing off the glass she'd been attacking with the scrubby sponge. The tips of her fingers were already starting to prune and the scalding water had turned her skin red. "Not needing help doesn't mean you can't accept it. 'Sides, you cooked. It's only fair that I clean. Just say 'Thank you, Emma' and make us some coffee or something."

"Fine." Regina huffed and glowered but then she was leaning across the blond to fill the kettle with water and Emma grinned to herself. That was the closest to acceptance she was likely to get.

And if she enjoyed the brief contact, well, it was only because she was admiring the brunette's perfume. It was pleasant, whatever it was, but so subtle Emma hadn't noticed it before. Impossible to ignore now, though, with Regina's hair tickling at her nose and soft curves pressed against her side and-

'_Stop it, Swan. We are NOT perving on your son's adoptive mother. So, so wrong.'_

Then she was gone and Emma sagged with relief, scrubbing furiously at a fork that was already clean.

Silence reigned for several minutes too long and Emma chanced a sideways glance at the Mayor to find the woman pensively watching the steady _drip, drip, drip_ of black liquid into the coffee pot.

Emma placed the last dish on the drying rack and turned to lean against the sink, drying her water wrinkled hands with the dish towel.

"Hey." She said gently, brows knit together, and when Regina deigned to look at her offered a smile. "Where'd you go?"

"What?"

"You were doing that thing you do. Where you're a million miles away."

Regina scoffed, her arched eyebrow saying clearly, _'As if you know anything about me.'_.

"I was just thinking. A foreign concept to you, I know."

Emma chuckled and tossed the now damp towel onto the countertop with a little more force than she'd intended. It slapped wetly against the smooth tile. "Penny for 'em?"

"It's just... I'm not accustomed to being offered assistance. So, _thank you_, Emma." It was said with such a sneer and her posture was so stiff and defensive, like she was bracing herself for something, poised to flee or fight, that Emma felt the question forming on the tip of her tongue once more; _'Who did this to you?'_

She had no intention of voicing it out loud but before she could stop herself she heard herself asking, "Who hurt you, Regina?"

"I have no idea what you mean, dear."

She'd really put her foot in it this time but it was too late to backpedal and anyway Henry's words were rattling around in her brain, nagging at her; _'I don't think she has any friends...You're supposed to help people...'_ "Come on. You put on a good show but you don't get so-so _broken_ all on your own. _Something_ happened."

Emma pressed forward and wrapped a hand around Regina's elbow in what she hoped was a comforting gesture-she'd had so little human contact in her life that lacked other motives that she didn't quite know what to do-and for a moment she felt tense muscle melting beneath her fingertips and thought Regina might just relent. Maybe even sink into her, which was somehow an _interesting_ prospect.

Then the walls came crashing down and Regina jerked away as though burned. "I think it's time you left, Miss Swan. You will say goodnight to Henry and then you will get out of my house."

"Okay. Okay." Emma held up her hands in supplication. She almost apologized but really, she wasn't sorry. Just even more curious than before."I know you don't like me. But you _can_ talk to me, you know."

And then she retreated up the stairs because Regina's glare had turned murderous and she didn't quite trust her to not start throwing things.

Henry was already burrowed beneath his comforter when she rapped a knuckle against the door frame and it was from the foot of the bed that he emerged as she stepped into his room for the first time. He had a makeshift tent going on under there she realized, with a flashlight and, of course, the giant book of fairy tales.

It was a cute room, all painted blue and covered with super hero memorabilia. It was littered in comic books and, oddly, clocks (She counted no less than five), but was extremely clean and well organized for a little boy. She wondered how much of that was him and how much his mother's strict influence.

"Look kid, I don't know what it is exactly you're wanting me to do but I don't think-"

"She let you come say goodnight to me. You made her mad but she didn't ban you from seeing me. That's good, Emma. You're already changing things."

He was listening? "Yeah. I guess." She sighed, scrubbing a hand across her forehead. "I should go before that changes. G'Night, kid. I'll see you in the morning."

She kissed his forehead and tucked him in properly ("Sleep! No more reading!") before creeping cautiously back downstairs.

The Mayor was nowhere in sight, already retired to her room or, more likely her study, and Emma let herself out.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: It'll be a bit before the next update. Getting my wisdom teeth out tomorrow ('cause the Army apparently thinks Saturday is the perfect day for dental torture) so I'll be grumpy and unmotivated for a while. Thanks for all the lovely reviews, you wonderful things you. It is much appreciated. On another note, it's entirely possible that my muse is just trying to tell me it really wants ice cream. It seems to keep appearing.

Emma Swan was _everywhere_. Where before she had been late to all their meetings (Although it was possible that was due to simple ineptness rather than spite) and ducked and dodged Regina at every turn, now she was early. She came with a swagger and that horrid leather jacket, more often than not bearing coffee and pastries from Granny's (Which remained pointedly ignored) and a newfound sunny disposition that was downright infuriating. She refused to be baited into arguments in spite of Regina's increasingly more desperate and creative attempts to do so. It was insulting, frankly; The Mayor was certain she had been in rare form. Her jibes were a thing of poetic beauty.

No, Emma Swan would grit her teeth and clench her fists until her knuckles turned white but refused to fall into their by now familiar verbal dance. She even had the gall to smile, that quirky, dimple filled, sweet-enough-to-cause-cavities expression that she shared with Henry and, the real rub, _Snow _(And it was a curious thing, trying to deal with someone who was at once so like the little boy Regina adored and the woman she hated. She went through bouts of wanting to throttle Emma where she stood and and disconcerting fits of longing to pull her close and never let go.).

This might have been ignored, shrugged off as the woman finally finding respect and a sense of work ethic, maybe, until she started showing up early to retrieve Henry for school, seemingly for the sole purpose of annoying the Mayor over her morning coffee.

The first time she had slammed the door in the Sheriff's beaming face. It was surely illegal to be so chipper at such an hour, and if not she would find away to make it so. Then Henry had opened the door to see his _savior_ sitting on the stoop like some sort of dejected puppy, thus ensuring that every morning when she knocked he was there to let her in (And as it turned out, they were the both of them annoying morning people whose good moods only fed off one another. She likened their conjoining to a fairy with a sugar rush; They only lacked the wings.).

She talked about everything and nothing and it was irritating and also, somehow, a relief. Regina hadn't had anything like intelligent conversation in over twenty-eight years, not since Maleficent if she was being perfectly honest. The people she had found to be idiotic in their own world hadn't improved when they'd had their identities stripped from them and there was only so much mental stimulation to be had from bonding over comic books with Henry, back when he'd been so inclined.

That was a whole other conundrum, Henry. He'd been more open with her of late than he'd been in what felt like a lifetime. When it was just them he was still distant, though in a curious way, as though she were a puzzle that had been placed before him that he was desperate to solve (Plotting the "Evil Queen"'s death for all she knew, but at least he was no longer so cold). He didn't return her affection but he didn't shrug away from it either. When Emma was around he was so happy, so bright, she could almost pretend her little family had gone back to normal. Well, insomuch as one's life _could_ be normal, when you were living it in a world that wasn't your own.

It was painful, deep and twisting, but in the same breath those moments, when her son would forget himself and smile at her like he had once done when she was still his whole world, were the last balm available to the blackened chasm in her chest.

So she tolerated Emma Swan's vendetta of kindness, though it was irksome. Until she hit on her next big idea, there wasn't much else for it.

When Saturday rolled around and the Sheriff turned up on her door with a grin and an obscenely large tub of icecream, however, Regina felt her patience sorely tried.

"Miss Swan... What the hell is that?"

"A little birdie told me the reason you didn't like it was because you've never actually tried it." Emma waggled the tub's handle so it swayed in a manner she probably thought was enticing. "So, I come with temptation. And movies. Henry said you were both partial to superheros."

Little traitor. He wasn't wrong; Twenty-Eight plus years later and she still couldn't get her mother's voice out of her head long enough to enjoy the simpler pleasures this world had to offer. She was just surprised he'd noticed.

"You and Henry are free to enjoy your time as you will. But you will keep that," Regina gestured with a sneer, "Away from me."

"Emma!" Henry came bounding down the stairs and Emma invited herself the rest of the way in, muddy boots and all, to meet the little boy's exuberant hug.

Regina slammed the door behind her with a flourish and a scowl. "Make yourself at home." She muttered darkly before retreating to the kitchen where she had every intention of making her own healthier snack and then spending the rest of the day in her study with a stack of paperwork and a strong drink. There wasn't much trouble the pair of them could get into if they spent their afternoon sprawled in front of the television. She could hide, guilt and worry free. It was easier, to be close but separate, than it was to try and mesh with their rhythm.

Of course Emma didn't take the hint; she pushed her movie rentals off on Henry so the boy could settle in and get started and then followed, still toting her giant bucket of sugary poison. "Don't think you're escaping so easily, Madame Mayor."

Regina watched askance as the blond deposited the tub on the kitchen island and rummaged in the silverware drawer, looking for all the world like this was something comfortable, something she had done every day and not a breach into the personal environment of someone who hated her.

"Just a bite. I _guarantee_ it'll change your life." She pried the lid off and dug in with one of the spoons she'd produced from her rummaging, swirling it around in the slightly melted treat. "Pleeeease?"

Regina scowled, hands on her hips. There were times when she felt as though she'd inadvertently adopted another child. "IF I do- Will you leave me be so I can actually get some work done?"

Emma lifted one hand in a two fingered salute, the other offering up the spoon that was dangerously close to dripping chocolate all over Regina's pristine tile flooring. "Scout's honor."

Regina didn't take the spoon, instead leaning forward to accept the offered bite while the utensil still rested in the blond's grip, and her eyelids fluttered shut with her surprise. It was exquisite, the cold and the sweet of it, the silky texture, and suddenly she couldn't remember why she had been denying herself in the first place. When she opened her eyes again she was even more surprised to note just how closely Emma was watching her, eyes burning and lingering as her lips relinquished the spoon.

Was that it then? Was this _niceness_ some fumbling form of seduction? That, at least, was a game Regina was familiar with. A game she had written the rules to, no less.

She gently pried the spoon from Emma's fingers, pressing forward until the Sheriff was trapped between her body and the island. Emma clearly wasn't expecting that and she remained rigid as Regina latched on like a vampire and nibbled her way down the smooth muscles of her neck. When the Mayor's hands settled on her belt and began to pull at the supple leather she finally reacted, her knees seeming to turn to mush as she sagged and grabbed at the older woman's shoulders for stability. Those grasping fingers suddenly dug in, pushing Regina back forcefully. The whole world narrowed down to fierce green eyes and shuddery, panting breaths.

"Stop. Stop."

"I thought this was what you wanted, dear. To get me to _open up_." She bared her teeth in a feral grin, straining forward against the blonde's hold. She felt dangerous; the air between them was alive with energy. She wasn't sure if it was hate or rage or lust or some weird mash up of all three but it was the closest thing to magic she'd felt in years and it made her skin burn with the intensity of it.

"What? No! Well, yeah but-Not like this!" This time Emma actually shoved her backwards, just hard enough to generate sobering, much needed space. "Jesus, Regina. Is that really what you thought?"

Regina still looked like a wild cat ready to pounce but the sultry look fell away, leaving behind a puzzled frown. "Well, yes."

"Jesus." Emma's hands were on her hips, leaning forward, and she felt like she'd just run a marathon. It took a supreme effort of will not to just rush forward into Regina's arms and take what she was offering. It was what she would have done before, before Storybrooke and Henry and this new awakened longing to have roots beneath her feet. Fuck and run and never look back. "Okay, look. Someday, maybe, we're going to have this conversation. But we're not there yet. We do this, it's not just about us. It's about the kid and, fuck, the whole damned town because come Monday morning we've gotta find some way to look each other in the eye and work together. And even if we didn't have all of that, in spite of what you seem to think you're worth more than a quickie against the kitchen counter."

With the kid only a few rooms away no less. _Jesus_.

"We do this, I want more. I want all of you. You're not ready, I get that. Maybe we start by being _friends_ and see where we end up."

Regina had her arms wrapped about herself in a defensive posture that was fast becoming familiar and she looked so small (And it was strange, to think of her as such, because the woman had enough presence to fill an entire room) that Emma wanted to pull her close in comfort, but she didn't quite trust her hormones enough to try breaching the gap between them just yet.

"Friends."

"Yeah."

"You're really... denying me?"

"Yeah."

"Oh. I've never been anyone's _friend_ before."

"Well, now you are." Emma reached behind her for the ice cream tub and the spoon and some sense of normalcy. "So, we're going to take this. And we're going to go watch the Fantastic Four with our son and pig out irresponsibly."

"MY son."

"Our son."

"Fine. Okay."

And Henry, skulking in the hallway and on the verge of running for fear of eavesdropping on something gross, did a little fist pump of victory. Maybe they would work it out all on their own.

###############################################

When Mary Margaret got home, and had Emma been in a clearer frame of mind she might have teased and asked what had the school teacher out so late, it was to find Emma elbow deep in the mess of parts and wires that had once been their microwave. The blond looked up guiltily as her roommate set her purse on the counter, smiling around the screw she held between her teeth.

"Oh Emma. What happened?"

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to, it just- I'll get a new one, I promise." Emma sank back in her chair, tangling her hands in her messy curls with frustration.

The sight was adorable and Mary just shook her head, already reaching for the cocoa mugs. "What did Regina do this time?"

Emma watched her friend putter around their tiny kitchen, collecting the chocolate and the pot for boiling, feeling her gratitude deep down in her bones, in that aching place that still longed for family.

The problem was, she thought while she considered how to answer, not really what Regina had done so much as what Emma herself _hadn't_ done.

It was all Henry's fault really, instilling her with his fantasy of her being a hero, a white knight. She'd had the perfect opportunity to bleed out all her frustration in what probably would have been the world's greatest hate sex and instead... Instead she was sitting here, agonizing over whether or not she had meant what she said, if she really wanted the possibility of something resembling a relationship with the person who had been the closest thing she'd ever had to a genuine enemy.

"I think I'm in trouble."


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: So, dental torture was postponed on account of bullshit. I swear, the PTB get some sort of thrill out of making me embark on ridiculously long drives for no reason. Anyway, I channeled my frustration into another chapter for you lovelies. It's short, I know, but I hope you enjoy. And to the anon who was considering signing up for an FF account- Dooooooooooooooo it. Peer pressure, peer pressure, peer pressure. Fall to the darkside, we have cookies. We can't share the cookies 'cause, you know, _internet_, but know that the cookies are there.

"It's the apocalypse isn't it? 'The end is nye!', Zombies and hellfire?" Ruby slid Henry's hot chocolate across the bar with an old school saloon flourish and then leaned her whole front over the counter, the better to gossip. The little boy took the steaming mug in both hands, careful of the piping hot porcelain, and asked "What?"

Ruby raised her eyebrows and nodded over at the booth where the sheriff and the mayor were sitting across from each other talking. Emma was gesturing animatedly while Regina, well, scowled actually but it was less a glare of murderous intent and more good natured grumpiness. As if that in itself wasn't weird enough, Ruby wasn't entirely sure but from the snippets she'd picked up on they were deeply engrossed in the age old "Batman or Superman" debate. Emma chose that moment to throw her hands in the air with an emphatic "Laser beams!", making Ruby's point for her.

"_That_. They're just _talking_. And- and _laughing_. So when's the world gonna end, huh?"

"Oh. Yeah, they've been getting along." and Henry looked far more miserable than Ruby would have thought at that news. His mothers, they of the drawn out grudges and nasty right hooks, had somehow found some common ground. Surely that should make him happy?

"What's the matter? Don't you like having them both around?"

"Well, yeah. It's been really cool." Henry sighed. He couldn't exactly tell Ruby that he'd been waiting impatiently for a curse breaking kiss and that it was their lack of progress on the falling in love thing that had him frustrated. He'd seriously considered at one point coming up with some excuse to hang mistletoe everywhere but stopped himself because it would have been fruitless; Everything his book had told him led him to believe that the required kiss had to come from a place of love or it wouldn't work. So shoving them together and hoping for the best was out.

"It's just...I'd hoped... I wanted them to _like_ each other. _Like_ like."

It took Ruby a minute to grasp his inflection but when she did she let out a squeal that had Henry looking around to make sure his mothers hadn't heard. "_Ruby!_"

Luckily they were still engrossed in their conversation. It was just after the dinner rush and the diner was still crowded enough to create a den of noise that smothered the waitress's outburst.

"Sorry!" Ruby smiled apologetically and bounced on her toes, letting out another, quieter squeal. Then she said in a stage whisper, "You're trying to parent-trap them! That's so weird and _adorable _and... Does either of them even like girls?"

Henry shrugged. He hadn't even considered that, honestly. It was destiny, right? What did it matter if they were boys or girls or whatever? "I don't know. I think they like each other though. Or, you know, they would."

Ruby glanced over his shoulder at Emma, who had her head thrown back in laughter. Her mane of curls gleamed almost golden in the warm glow of the low hanging light over the shared booth and she looked about as happy as the waitress had ever seen her. As for Regina, she was dark and brooding and unreadable as ever but the fact that she was sitting there at all spoke volumes. There was definitely chemistry there. Explosive, nuclear chemistry. It could work.

"But they're stuck in the friend zone. Or the toleratance zone, I guess." She supplied, and Henry nodded.

"I got 'em spending time together but I'm out of ideas."

"Let me help! Oh please, please Henry let me help?" Because this was too fun to pass up on, an opportunity to help her much adored Sherif find some happiness and the Mayor to chill the fuck out and oh, wouldn't it just be scandalously delicious? Granny would just die. Along with half the town, probably.

Henry looked sceptical. He sipped at his now cooled cocoa, little brows knitting together as he considered her offer. "Okay. What are you thinking?"

#####################################

"Miss Swan, it is one thing to win because you've been handed perfection and invincibility without merit. It's quite another to win purely on your own skill and cunning."

Emma snorted. Of course Regina identified with Batman. Running around terrorizing people with smoke pellets and a batsuit was right up her alley.

She had to stop herself there, because the mental image created by putting Regina and batsuit in the same sentence was more than her brain could safely handle. Being noble and creating a meaningful connection wasn't going to last very long if she kept submitting herself to that line of torture. "Come on, he's all... Dark and emo and 'Vengeance!'. Superman helps people because it's the right thing to do."

"There's nothing wrong with a well deserved vendetta." Regina sipped at her coffee, leaving the rim of the mug stained red with lipstick. Emma grimaced; She still didn't understand how the other woman could stand the bitter flavor, undiluted by sugar or cream. She wondered absently if it was another case of simply never having tried anything different. The thought hatched a vague plan to ninja sweeten her beverage, if the opportunity presented itself.

"I don't buy that." Emma said, shaking herself out of her thoughts. "Revenge is never the answer. You just end up turning yourself into the badguy."

Regina's hands turned white knuckled, clasped too tightly around the coffee mug she still hadn't completely lowered back to the table top, and Emma could have kicked herself for somehow managing to step outside of the safe boundary of comic books. They had been doing so well. She scrambled for a way to salvage the moment, to keep the conversation from dissolving into a more personal argument.

"Sometimes revenge is all you have left." Regina said simply, with a tight smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Besides, you can't tell me Batman doesn't still manage to help people. He's not a _bad guy_."

No, not bad. Not evil. Just troubled, tortured even, by a loss he can't escape from. Maybe there was a deeper connection there, Emma realized. Maybe it wasn't about the gadgets and theatrics but the person beneath them, the wounded soul. "No, I guess he's not. Anyway, that glider thing's pretty cool."

Henry finally rejoined them, the hot chocolate he'd gone to fetch already half gone, and Emma frowned at him as he wriggled his way back onto the seat beside his mother. "What took so long, kid?"

"Uhhh... I was just talking to Ruby. About school." He grinned at her impishly and that feeling in her gut, her 'super power', tingled with the awareness that he wasn't being entirely honest. She quirked a brow, about to call him on it, but Regina ruffled his hair and said, "That's nice dear. Anyway, Miss Swan, you can't expect me to believe that a man that wears _that_ outfit is entirely right in the head." and Emma was drawn back into their debate before the words could fully form themselves.

"Oh come on! Batman wears the same damned thing, it's just black."


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: So I made you guys wait ages for this and for that I apologize. I've been all over the place with it and I'm still not completely thrilled. At this point I just can't stare at the damned thing any more. Anyway, thanks for reading and enjoy.

"Granny" Lucas eyed her granddaughter, from the bright red streaks in her hair and the expectant, earnest smile down to the god awful pointy toed boots on the girl's feet.

The idea was almost lucrative. A movie night in the park, sponsored in part by the old theater, who would supply the movie side of things, and Granny's, who would supply the refreshment. A community affirming event that would provide a little extra cash and advertising for the diner. If it went well they could even make a "thing" of it, as Ruby had so eloquently put it.

She was almost positive her granddaughter had some ulterior motive she just couldn't imagine what it might be.

"Alright."

"Yes!"

"If— _If_, you take charge of it."

"Aaaaaaw-"

"You're the one with the grand ideas, girl, you can take responsibility for them."

It was high time, anyway, that she learned a little something about how to run things. Granny hadn't told her yet, hadn't found just the right time or the right words to express it, but it wouldn't be many years left before she had the whole damned business to her name.

"Fine! Cool. I can totally handle it."

And if she should happen to somehow burn the park down, well, they'd call it a learning experience.

###########

You must need to be tall to swagger, Henry decided, shoulders back and walking with a little wiggle that was decidedly un-Emma like. His birth mother, walking beside him, was oblivious to his antics. Her blond head was down, staring stoically at her own feet. She made quite the sad picture, with her fluffy ball topped beanie of the day and her hands fisted in the pockets of her blue leather jacket.

There had been a lot of that lately, he'd noticed, the quiet contemplation and stoicism. He hoped it was due to her growing love sick, but it was impossible to be certain.

Perhaps she had merely been missing out on her morning coffee. Grownups seemed to be prone to bouts of grumpiness when that happened.

"Kid… What are you doing?"

She'd finally noticed his weird little waddle and was staring at him with an expression that said she wanted to laugh but wasn't sure there wasn't something wrong with him.

Henry immediately straightened up, shrugging his shoulders."Nothing. Meet me at Granny's after school? I want to talk to you about something."

Her brows twitched, lips settling in an exasperated line, and he knew she thought it was something Operation Cobra related. Which in a roundabout sort of way it was. "Okay. Have a good day."

Maybe it was a girl thing, the swagger, he thought watching her walk away. There was definitely something about the hips that he just couldn't quite get.

########

"Don't be mad."

"No good conversation ever started out with those words."

Emma was sitting at the bar in Granny's, chatting with Ruby while she waited for her "usual" morning order of coffee and a bright pink assorted pastry box. The waitress was sporting pigtails that morning, though on her they looked anything but innocent, and an uncharacteristic air of nerves that told the sheriff she probably wasn't going to like what she was about to hear.

"Alright. Lay it on me."

"So, I kinda sorta promised I wouldn't tell you—but it's so cute and I'm just_ dying_—and, well, I don't think you'll mind actually, you're kinda already, I mean I think you are—"

"Spit it out already, I'm running late as it is." Granny returned with the blonde's purchase, shooting Ruby an annoyed look that went unnoticed, and Emma hopped off her stool to collect it.

Ruby waited until her grandmother had gone again, and Emma was all but vibrating with impatience at this point, then leaned over the counter top so Emma could still hear her as she said in an excited whisper, "Henry is totally trying to parent trap you."

"What?" Emma frowned distractedly, peeling back the lid of her coffee cup to blow on the still steaming liquid.

"You know… You and the Mayor… he's trying to hook you up."

"Oh. Oh!" Emma suddenly found herself sitting again, though she had no real recollection of exactly how she'd gotten there. Her mouth opened, then snapped shut again, doing a fair impression of a goldfish. "You mean— He wants…?"

"His mommies to be together? Yes!" Ruby looked way too excited about the whole thing, Emma decided.

It certainly explained some things. That sneaky little brat.

"So, whaddaya think?"

"Huh?" Emma's attention had waned, mentally running over the last few weeks with her new found perspective, work and breakfast all but forgotten.

"Do you_ lurrrrrve_ her? The Mayor, I mean."

"What?! No! I mean… No!" They'd grown civil, certainly. The lust that had been initiated by the not-quite-kisses all those nights ago still reared it's head on occasion but nothing of the like had happened since and they'd done very well at settling into an almost-friendship. Emma might even say she'd grown somewhat fond of the other woman, fond of her company and her dark sense of humor (on those occasions when it emerged). Fond, even, of her laugh and that rare, genuine smile, the way she cared for Henry, that flippy little thing her hair had going on…

"Oh my God! You _do_!"

"No! Of course not. I like her I guess, once you get to know her she's not— Well, she's less of a bitch. Kind of."

"You love her! You totally love her!"

People were starting to stare at them now, drawn by the conversation that had ceased to be hushed, and Emma scowled darkly. "Seriously, it's not like that."

Although she couldn't quite suppress the remembrance of the things she'd told Regina, the feelings of "maybe someday". She'd boxed them all away, as she did most things that cut too close to her heart, but it didn't take much to send them fluttering to the surface.

Ruby was grinning like a mad woman. "Okay, you don't love her. But you _could_, couldn't you?"

Emma didn't say a word, couldn't quite think of how to express the thoughts she had rolling around in her brain even if she had been inclined to, but the answer must have been written all over her face because Ruby looked fit to burst.

"Yes! Okay, so you can't tell Henry I told you. But he had this idea— It was so sweet, he'll probably tell you later— anyway, you should do it. Woo your woman."

It was then that Emma finally got a glimpse of the clock on the wall and she remembered there was still life marching on outside this whatever it was going on inside her and fuck it all, she was so, so late.

"Crap. Crap! Listen, Rubes, I gotta run. Crap!"

It wasn't until after she'd gone, all but steamrolling over Archie in her hurry to get out the door, that Ruby realised the flustered sheriff had run off without her donuts.

Almost unheard of. Emma was a woman who was serious about her food.

'_She's so got it bad.'_

_########_

When Henry presented her with the tickets, roughly the length of her palm and emblazoned with bold red letters stating "Movie Night in the park with Granny's", Emma couldn't help the little smirk that tugged at her lips. She imagined he'd hatched some scheme, something that involved getting the three of them there and then somehow leaving his mothers alone together.

She had to give the kid credit, there was something a little bit romantic about it.

She drew it out a little, letting him sit there wide-eyed and a tad more nervous with each minute that passed.

Then, "I know what you're up to, you little imp."

Emma watched his face, cycling from surprise to something like bashful contrition when he realised she wasn't going to yell at him.

"You do?"

"Yeah." They needed to have a serious conversation, a heart to heart. It was uncomfortable for Emma, who had no experience with these things, but she grit her teeth and resolved to muddle through it. "Look Henry, I understand where you're coming from and it's sweet, what your trying to do but… Look, I don't want you to get your hopes up, okay?"

Which, judging by the way his eyes lit up, was exactly the wrong thing to say. His hopes were already up in the clouds. "You mean you're going to go for it?"

"Kid, I'm not making any promises. You have to understand how complicated this is. Your mom, she's…" Damaged. Almost impossible to get close to. She of the steel formed emotional walls. "A compex lady."

"But….?"

"I'm not even sure how she feels." She wasn't even completely sure how she felt herself. "But… Maybe. We'll see. But you have to stop with the plotting, okay? We'll get there when we get there. If we get there."

"Okay." His grin wasn't the least bit reassuring. "You'll still ask her though, right?"

He gestured at the three tickets she still held in her hand and Emma sighed. It could be fun, maybe.

"Yes. As long as you understand that it is what it is. Don't expect anything to happen, okay?"

He nodded emphatically but this was, after all, the child who believed in magical fairy tale love and she strongly suspected she hadn't effected his mindset in the slightest.

########

This was just stupid, Emma told herself even as she took another deep, calming breath, elbow deep in dishwater that smelled vaguely of vanilla. She was just proposing another "family" outing, just like any of the other dozen things they'd done together lately, and even if this was somehow different she'd never in her life had so much trouble going after something she wanted.

Maybe it was the knowledge that the thing she wanted this time wasn't strictly physical, as it had always been in the past. Hell, they already had a kid together (Close enough at any rate. It wasn't lost on her that Regina no longer protested the use of the word "Our".). Once they started down that path it wouldn't take very long to land on "serious". That was terrifying in and of itself.

And yet… It_ could_ be wonderful. She'd thus far referred to their weird little unit as a family only in a joking way, often just to see the expression it evoked on Regina's face, but if things worked out they really could be. A _family_. Domestic bliss. All the things she'd longed for as a child but long since dismissed as a pipe dream.

'_Look at me, growing as a person…'_

"Miss Swan, I'm reasonably certain that plate has been sufficiently clean for the last ten minutes."

Tonight it was wine, a rich red that probably cost more than Emma made in a month, swirling in the glass Regina clutched in delicately twisting fingers. She'd taken up her now customary perch at the kitchen island and was (for the most part) silently watching Emma work (The better to keep Emma from breaking something, she claimed, but the sheriff liked to think she enjoyed the company at least a smidgen.). There was something regal in the way she lounged, even on something as inelegant as a kitchen stool, legs crossed in a prim, enticing way that Emma had been failing not to notice.

The statement was the closest Regina was likely to get to asking her what was wrong. It must have been a little bit like muscle atrophy, Emma had decided. The woman was so unused to expressing an interest in the goings on of others, or, indeed, to having others express an interest in her, that she didn't quite know how to ask with any degree of social decorum. She would find other ways of coaxing out the information she wanted.

Ways that usually involved roundabout insults.

It probably said all sorts of horrible things about Emma's Psyche that she found that endearing.

"Saturday. My Henry Saturday." She decided to spit it all out at once, not even looking at the brunette hovering behind her. "The kid decided he wanted to spend it at that 'Movie night in the park' thing. And he wanted you to come with us, if you'd like."

"He wants me there?" She sounded unconcerned, as light as if they were discussing the weather, but Emma had seen enough to know just how much it meant to her. It'd been weeks since Emma had heard the boy refer to his mother as 'evil' but those wounds weren't going away any time soon.

"Yeah. I do too, actually." Too much. Emma back pedaled. "I mean, it would be fun. The three of us."

"I think… That sounds lovely."

"Great. I'll pick you guys up—"

"No. I refuse to go anywhere in that rolling coffin you call a car."

"What's wrong with my car? That thing's seen me through a lot." The yellow beast was a piece of junk, but a reliable piece of junk.

Silence greeted her and she didn't need to look around to know she was being affixed with a steely glare.

"Oookay then. We'll walk. Not a big deal."

"That would be agreeable."

Emma let out the breath she'd been unaware of holding and went back to scrubbing.

'_It's not a date.'_ She scolded herself. _'It can't be a date when the other person has no inkling of your intentions. And, you know, you're taking your kid out with you.'_

Just a testing of the waters.

She got that little fluttery feeling in her chest all the same.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: So, I sat down and I told myself, "We're going to write smut today!" and then I totally chickened out and it just didn't happen. I don't know how you guys who do it do and do it so well. Mass kudos. And I may have been listening to "Something There" from Beauty and the Beast on repeat while writing this but you'll never prove it. ;)

########

Regina didn't have much care for movies or television or anything of the kind; For an embarrassingly lengthy amount of time after their arrival in this world, she had been convinced that everything the infernal little boxes showed her was actually happening, somewhere out there in the world. She had thought it some marvelous technological rendition of her own magic mirror.

When she'd finally realized the truth of the matter she'd wanted nothing to do with it. Who, after all, wanted to waste hours of their life watching fake people work out their equally fake and often trivial problems? She hadn't even owned a set of her own, prior to Henry, and then she'd come around only because she wanted him to have all the amenities every other happy child of this realm possessed. Of course, she had eventually realised the true magic of television was in it's ability to entertain children, providing a few sanity affirming hours of peace.

So while she was familiar with the concept, of throwing up a large white screen to project the fictitious images on and paying to gather around it, aware even that her little town had an establishment that existed solely for that purpose, she had never actually seen such a thing for herself.

Henry must have sensed her trepidation, though she was certain he had no inkling of the root of it (Or maybe he did, with that gods forsaken book of his there offering incite into her old life she would have preferred he not be privy to.). He was all reassuring smiles and affection even as she made him bundle up like an Eskimo (For while they were taking blankets she still couldn't shake the fear that he might be to cold in the night air.).

"It'll be fun mom, I promise."

She was saved from having to formulate a response by the knocking at the front door, the unmistakable graceless thud announcing Emma's arrival.

Emma took one look at Henry, his little arms stiff under layers of sweater and coat and sporting a knit cap whose braided strings trailed down past his chin to the middle of his chest, and burst out laughing. "Geese kid, we're going to the park for a few hours, not the Antarctic."

Emma was wearing her own hat, one that Regina couldn't recall having seen before, with a fuzzy little bauble on top that the Mayor had to resist smacking in irritation. "Yes, well. If he gets too warm he can always take something off but if he's under dressed and gets cold there won't be anything for it."

Emma smiled at her in a strange way, an almost, dare she say it, _affectionate _way, and it disconcerted Regina such that she didn't protest when the blond gently pulled the neatly folded blankets from her arms to carry herself. "Yeah, okay."

As they proceeded down the sidewalk Emma slipped her free arm around Regina's, linking them together, and Regina allowed it, delicately clasping the crook of the blonde's elbow even as she scrutinized her with a slightly puzzled frown. They'd been close but largely refrained from touching in any way shape or form since the blonde's declaration of "friends first", though not from lack of wanting.

Neither noticed their son, grinning in their wake.

########

It was almost magical, Emma decided as she reclined back with her weight resting on the palms or her hands, staring lazily at one of the twinkly little lanterns someone had strung up in the trees. She had worried about being crowded in with half the town, but in spite of the surprisingly large turnout (From what she gathered the theater had been playing the same three films since the early eighties and this one was certainly nothing everyone hadn't probably already seen a dozen times before.) they had managed to secure a comfortably secluded patch of grass for themselves.

Even with the incessant cricket chirping, mumbled voices and high pitched childish laughter, it was peaceful.

As the last dregs of sunlight faded away and conversation tapered off with expectation she settled back into the tree trunk behind her, finding the rough bark to be a reassuring ground. She was hyper-aware of the woman sitting next to her, even with Henry serving as an unwitting chaperon on the brunette's other side. They were close enough to touch, thigh to thigh, if she shifted only a little. It was as maddening as it was innocent.

Henry disappeared to buy a hot chocolate sometime after the opening sequence rolled, muttering something about wanting to congratulate Ruby on a job well done. Emma watched him all but skip over to the waitress's makeshift booth with a quirked brow but was drawn from her suspicions by a sudden weight settling against her shoulder.

"It's cold, Miss Swan." Regina muttered irritably when the blond glanced sideways at her, and Emma realised the other woman was indeed shivering under her dark overcoat. She reached for their extra blanket, settling it around the other woman's shoulders. When Regina didn't immediately move away Emma peeked over at her again, surprised to the Mayor's attention riveted to the screen.

"I forget sometimes you kind of share Henry's nerdy." She said, amused. "Classic favorite, I presume Madam Mayor?"

"Never seen it before, actually."

"Really?!" They were accosted by shushing noises and Emma rolled her eyes, repeating in a quieter tone, "Really?"

"Really."

Emma wanted to press for more information but agitated brown eyes silenced the words in her throat.

"Wow."

It wasn't until the carbonite encased Han was being rolled away that she realised Regina was crying, silent pretty little tears that glittered on her eyelashes in the flickering glow of the movie screen.

"Oh hey, hey it's okay. They save him in the next one I promise." Emma's hands fluttered uselessly, wanting to comfort but unsure if she'd be welcomed.

Regina sobbed something, and Emma thought she heard the word 'love' in there somewhere but it didn't make any kind of sense else-wise, and then she'd buried her face against Emma's chest, clutching at the sheriff's lapels. Emma rested her palms against the backs of the Mayor's shoulders soothingly, amused even though it broke her heart just a little bit. She had always found the scene dreadfully corny herself, what with Han's basic dismissal of Leia's declaration of love and the weird slug guy, but something had clearly struck a chord for Regina.

She was on the verge of genuine concern, entertaining fleeting images of how she might explain to Henry that she'd somehow broken his mother ("What did you do to her? She won't stop crying!"), when Regina finally pulled away, dabbing at her eyes with her sleeves.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"Don't be. It's-" Emma gestured helplessly, "Sad." Apparently. She couldn't help the thumb that reached out to brush the rest of the tears away, could help even less the goofy grin that stretched her face when Regina didn't smack her hands away.

By the time the last of the credits flashed by the Mayor was perfectly poised once again, though silent as they gathered up their things. This was it, Emma decided as Henry reappeared at her elbow clutching a now empty styrofoam cup, she'd been allowed inside a fission in Regina's armor and now she was going to be forced out again, cast aside.

So she was surprised, when they arrived back at the mayoral mansion, to be invited inside to bid Henry goodnight and partake of a nightcap.

When Henry had finally stopped babbling about how "cool" the night was long enough to be tucked in and they'd retired to the Mayor's study, Emma was in no mood to actually drink the cider Regina placed in her hands. She instead settled the cool glass on the coffee table, ignoring how her hands shook, poised on the balls of her feet as though to flee as she waited for the metaphorical boot to kick her in the ass.

Regina cut an impressive profile, back-lit by the orange flicker of the fire place, and Emma wished dearly she could see the other woman's face. Not that it had ever been a great help in discerning her emotional state before. There were only flashes, glimmers of truth beneath the mask.

"What's your angle, Miss Swan? Emma."

"My- I'm sorry, what?"

"You're always here, with your caring and your kindness and your _smile_. You claim you're not trying to take Henry away from me and I-" She finally turned around, leaving her own drink upon the mantle, and Emma was gratified to see that the lines of her face weren't harsh with anger. "I believe you. So what exactly is it that you want from me?"

"Just... You." Emma cringed at her own sappiness but it was true, she realised, gaining enough confidence to step inside Regina's personal space. "I'm not saying I understand it. You're bitchy and cruel and a little bit crazy. But I see you with Henry, and how kind you can be and I just... I feel like... Like I barely know you, but I want to. God, I want to." She thought of pretty, pretty tears shimmering against soft skin and red, red trembling lips and she burned to know how someone could be so sad. And then she wanted to make it better. "I can't shake it."

It felt like a good moment to go for a kiss, with those smoldering eyes watching her, watching her face, watching her eyes and her lips and her hands, but was stopped by a palm splayed out flat against her breast bone, gently holding her back.

"Don't. Kisses there... They're for someone you love. I don't- We're not there, yet." And there was that smirk, at handing Emma's words back to her, that infuriating, confident, wonderful little quirk.

Emma was fine with that, with 'yet'- for now, at any rate. It was way too soon to be tossing the word love around anyway. She settled instead for kissing the tips of the fingers that no longer quite restraining hand, then her palm, wrist, the sensitive inner flesh of her elbow. By the time she made it to her shoulder, the underside of her jaw, Regina was making the most delicious noises in the back of her throat, little moans that Emma wanted to evoke over and over again.

When Regina finally unlatched her long enough to pull them upstairs, it occurred to Emma that they probably weren't _here _yet either, but she was too far gone to care.

########

Emma awoke to the feeling of lips pressed against her bare skin, laying gentle kisses atop the place where her heart rested over and over again. The sensation abruptly stopped, replaced with the tickle of hair just under her nose. Emma peeked out from beneath still heavy eyelids and was jolted to realize that Regina, unaware that her bed-mate had woken, had her ear pressed against the blonde's breast bone and was attentively listening to the steady beat.

"Hey you." Emma smiled sleepily, reaching up to twine her fingers through the dark locks spread out on her chest. "Good morning."

Regina stiffened briefly in surprise but didn't move, instead relaxing more fully into the body spread out beneath her.

"It's a beautiful thing, isn't it?" She said after a moment, and there was something dull and not quite right about her voice. "A heartbeat?"

Emma felt a plummeting sensation in her belly. Was this a Graham thing? Was she laying there thinking about her previous lover, who's heart had so suddenly stopped?

Emma could have kicked herself. She had forgotten, so caught up in her own haze of feeling. As big of a mess as that whole thing had been, it wasn't so long ago that Regina mightn't still be very seriously grieving. Whatever her predecessor had or hadn't felt, they'd still shared an intimate relationship.

"Regina... are you okay?" She almost didn't want to know. She didn't want to think about this beautiful creature wrapped up in anyone else's arms but she'd feel like a total ass if she just let this go.

"Of course, dear. I just..." Another little kiss whispered against Emma's skin. "I love your heart. I love that it's here, beneath your skin."

The organ in question gave a little flutter that Emma was certain the other woman felt, but before she could remark on the oddly sweet sentiment Regina was pulling away.

"Henry will be up soon... You should probably go. He shouldn't know you were here."

Henry, Emma secretly thought, would be thrilled to know progress had been made on the relationship front, but of course Regina didn't know that. Someday maybe she'd tell her.

"Can I see you later?" Emma asked, in the process of re-buttoning yesterday's shirt.

For a moment she thought Regina would say no, would dismiss this as something that should never happen again and send Emma on her merry way.

Then the blond found herself the sole focus of a dazzling smile. It left her feeling dizzy. There just wasn't enough oxygen in the world to make up for the things that smile did to her.

"I thought we might go to the diner for lunch around. If you should happen to show up..."

"I'll- I'll be there."

The remembrance of the look she received in return stayed with her all the way back home.

########

It was a Sunday morning, so of course she should have expected Mary Margaret to be there when she came stumbling in with her bed head and her rumpled clothes. She couldn't have been prepared, however, to find her roommate actively waiting for her, sipping coffee with a bemused expression as she leaned against the foot of their kitchen table.

"Good morning, Sheriff. Nice night?"

Emma felt a bit like a petulant teenager, underneath Mary Margret's scrutiny, a fact she blamed entirely on Henry, putting the idea of a motherly relationship in her head.

"Peachy. I'll tell you all about it later."

"Good. I'd recommend a shower first. I didn't know hair that long could stand up like that."

Emma scowled, reminding herself that she liked their camaraderie and that throwing things at the woman who owned the roof over her head could only end badly anyway.


	10. Chapter 10

True Love's Kiss (10/?)

Fandom: Once Upon a Time

Rating: T. There be language.

Pairings: Swan Queen

Disclaimers: Don't own the characters or anything else from the show. Just borrowing for a bit.

Summary: Determined to break the curse holding his town in thrall, Henry Mills has an epiphany. Eventual Swan Queen.

A/N: Look at me, all on a role and stuff. Thanks for all the reviews and stuff guys, it makes me happy to know you're actually enjoying this.

########

It had been three weeks. Three weeks of lunch dates and family dinners and visits that had ceased to revolve solely around Henry (Who for his part merely sat back with a triumphant little grin anytime he saw them interacting without his influence.). Three weeks of spending almost every night entangled in one an-other's arms.

Three weeks and still Emma hadn't been granted a proper kiss.

She wasn't denied anything else; Indeed she had been given leave to lavish kisses on every other inch of the Mayor's flesh. It was only when she strayed near those full, perfect lips that she was forcibly guided elsewhere. She tried not to take it personally, knew that Regina wouldn't have let the blond become such a fixture in her life if she truly saw their relationship as being purely about sex, but it was frustrating all the same. She burned and itched with the need to share this one small but oh so intimate gesture. It would surely be the kiss to end all kisses; They shared such explosive chemistry in every other aspect.

"So are you ever going to tell me who he is?"

Emma blinked, drawn from her en-flamed thoughts to find Mary Margret gazing at her curiously over the rim of her coffee mug. Saturday had rolled around once again and they had decided to share breakfast at the diner, celebrating their mutual freedom.

It was one of those weird days anyway, where the sun shone brightly but didn't warm anything it touched, and Emma couldn't think of anything better for it than a hot chocolate from Granny's. They had even acquired the perfect table, just far enough from the door that the chill air drifting in from people's coming and going didn't reach them.

Not so far, however, that she didn't notice when the mayor arrived at precisely eight o'clock, watching the woman's progress from over Mary's shoulder in what she hoped was an un-obvious manner. Regina, dressed in what for her passed as casual, was nothing if not a creature of habit, from the news paper folded neatly under her arm to the table she chose, even the way she sat in her chair was exactly the same as the weekend before, and the one before that (Not that Emma had been stalking, no. She'd had perfectly valid reasons for being around at those times to witness the behavior.) It was almost eerie.

There was this morning though, she was pleased to note, one small deviation when brown eyes slid over their table and twinkled with a barely there smirk.

"Who?" Emma jerked her attention back the earnest hazel gaze that was still upon her, vaguely aware that she was expected to actually answer.

"Whoever's making you all dreamy eyed. I don't think you've heard a single word I said."

"Uhhh..." Emma guiltily fished through her memory for the thread of their conversation but came up empty. "Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to totally zone out on you."

Across the room a newspaper rustled and Emma caught a glimpse of a pink tongue darting out to lick the Mayor's fingers before she flipped through the pages. It took a concentrated effort to keep her attention from being pulled away again.

"It's alright. I'm just curious is all- it must be pretty serious if it has you this distracted."

Emma wanted to point out that she was being coerced, because no way in hell anyone licked a spoon like that when they weren't aware of having an audience, but held her tongue.

Ruby arrived with their plates and an annoyingly knowing wink for Emma (And she was seriously going to rip the waitress's arm off and beat Henry with it if the innuendo and the smugness didn't stop soon.). "Here you go guys. Enjoy!"

Mary watched the waitress saunter away, a curious frown twisting her lips, and then set her mug down with an abrupt thud that splashed little droplets of brown liquid everywhere. "_Ruby_ knows? Ruby knows and you didn't tell me?"

"W-what? No! What made you think that?"

Emma blanched under the_ look_, the one that said Mary Margret didn't buy into her crap for a minute. "Okay look, Ruby only thinks she knows. I haven't told her anything." Which was true enough; Ruby's inkling was perfectly correct but she hadn't heard a single word about it from Emma.

"Okay. So who is it?"

"It's still new right now, I don't wanna jinx it. You know I'm not good at this stuff." Emma pushed her eggs around on her plate with her fork, eyes darting to the front corner of the diner in spite of herself. No way Mary wouldn't freak out if she knew. She couldn't even begin to understand the animosity between the two women (Henry's excuse of "She hates Snow White." just didn't cut it.) but she didn't much feel like being judged when she was still so uncertain herself. "When- _If_ it gets serious, you'll be the first to know."

Last was more likely but Mary Margaret didn't need to know that.

########

It was frightening just how content she felt resting in Emma's arms. She tried not to over think it-after all this _was_ supposed to be her happy ending, why shouldn't she indulge in all things that brought her pleasure?- but it was still disconcerting after all those years of basically feeling nothing to suddenly feel so much. She thought her heart might just burst, unused to all the extra effort. It didn't help that underneath it all still lurked the fragility, the terror that this new, beautiful thing might suddenly be ripped from her. She never got to keep pretty things for very long.

Snow- Mary Margret- was out, off on a date. She thought Emma might have mentioned Dr. Whale but really, Regina had lost interest after being assured that the bothersome woman wouldn't be interrupting them. Henry too was gone for the evening, sleeping over with Michael's twins. She was trying to be happy about her lonely little boy finally making some friends and not focus on the fact that their happy little family had made it back to one another in spite of the curse. It was an ongoing effort.

So they were left to their own devices, electing to curl up on the couch in the apartment Emma and Mary Margret shared (A first Regina wasn't particularly thrilled about) with a movie the mayor had yet to pay any attention to. She was too focused on their conjoined hands, enjoying the contrast between Emma's fair complexion and her own much darker hue, to be bothered with much else.

"Tell me about your childhood." Emma said suddenly, her chest rumbling beneath Regina's ear, and she looked up to find green eyes watching _her_ rather than the television screen. It seemed she wasn't the only one distracted.

"Why?" She kept her tone nonchalant but inside she was scrambling, wondering how she was going to get out of this. Emma tended to see through even her most convincing lies. In any case she suspected there was only so much more that could be denied the blond before her frustration made her leave- or aroused her suspicion.

"You already know my story." Emma shrugged, a barely there raising of her shoulders. "I just wanted to know yours. Any brothers? Sisters? Did you grow up here?"

"No, no siblings. Just me."

"And?"

"And what? There's not much to tell, honestly. I've lived in Storybrook for as long as I've been on this earth." Which was perhaps a strange choice of wording but truth enough to make it past her lover's innate lie detector, "Henry's the only family I possess that really matters."

"Okay. I know you go to visit your dad's grave every week but what about your mom? Is she still around?"

It was only extreme force of will that kept Regina from shuddering at the very thought of _that_ woman being anywhere near her town. Still, Emma must have felt the stiffening of her spine for her free hand was suddenly tracing soothing circles up and down the brunette's arm. "No, she's far, far from here."

"Has Henry ever met her? He's never mentioned a grandmother-"

"No! No. And pray he never does."

Emma was frowning and Regina could almost see the questions bubbling in the other woman's throat. There was entirely too much thinking going on in that head of hers.

Deciding to cut the interrogation off before it could begin Regina rolled over, straddling the other woman's hips and planting a kiss on the knuckles she was still holding on to. Emma's other hand trailed upwards to caress her face instead, lingering on the scar that sat just above her upper lip.

"I've upset you."

"No, I'd just prefer not to be thinking of my mother when there's so many better things we could be doing." She rocked gently to prove her point and knew from the glassy look that took over Emma's eyes that she had won, at least for the moment.

It was as Emma was leaning up, focused determinedly on the lips beneath her finger tips in a way that had that irrational fear curling once again in Regina's belly, that the front door banged open.

"Oh Emma it was just _awful_ I don't know why I thought-" Mary Margret looked up from unraveling her scarf, her wind burned cheeks turning just a shade pinker as she realized what she'd walked in on. The squeak she emitted was decidedly mouse-like. "Oh my God! I'm so sorry I'll just- Be anywhere else-"

She backed out the door again, shutting it behind her, leaving only the cream colored woolen scarf sprawled on the floor to mark that she had been there at all.

Emma groaned, dropping her forehead to rest against Regina's breast bone. "I should go find her. That's going to be... God. Did you have to make everyone in town hate you?"

"No, but I can't say that I didn't enjoy it."

Emma snorted. "Of course you did. I'm sorry this is- Tomorrow, okay?"

Regina had already resolved to leave anyway, not relishing the thought of being present for that particular conversation. Partly because she didn't trust herself not to claw Mary Margret's eyes out if she had to face her for too long and partly because she had no desire to witness whatever justifications for their relationship Emma might offer her.

Still, as she slithered to her feet she couldn't help one last, sultry smirk. "Tomorrow, _Sheriff_ Swan. I expect your undivided attention."

########

She wasn't consciously aware of making the decision to seek the pawnbroker out, knew only that the fear evoked from the thought of kissing Emma hadn't been helped by the look that Mary Margret had shot her as they'd briefly passed one another in the hall on the Mayor's way out. Like she was trying to recall something, poised just out of reach on the cusp of her memory. It was a look she had been receiving a lot around town lately, though it always quickly passed.

So when she looked up to find herself standing outside the little shop, the frigid night air pressing in around her, she supposed if she wouldn't be spending her evening in the way that she had originally planned she may as well take the opportunity to sooth her growing paranoia.

He was there of course, Rumpelstiltskin, _Mr. Gold_, behind the counter dancing his fingers across the strings of the guitar that hung on the wall. He looked up as she locked the door behind her, baring his teeth in a smug little smile. Almost as though he had been expecting her.

"Something's wrong. With the curse."

She glared at him expectantly as she stalked across the claustrophobicly cluttered store to face him, silently willing him to deny it, to reassure her that the curse he'd provided her was as unshakable as ever and her fears were silly. As so often was the case, however, he didn't give her what she wanted. "Oh I know, dearie."

"How do I stop it?"

"I'm afraid it's far too late for that." He moved to lean towards her with his palms against the counter top and for a moment she thought he might just giggle, in that shrill, annoying way he'd had in the old world.

"What?"

"You see, when I made the dark curse I also made a potion- _true love_, bottled. I placed just one, single drop of that potion on the parchment, one small safety valve. That potion was the product of Snow White and her dear, dear Prince _Charming's_ undying love. As was Emma, you see."

Regina clenched her fists, nails digging into the palms of her hands hard enough to draw blood. She had the sinking suspicion that she already possessed the answer she was looking for, had done for weeks now, ever since that first flutter of emotion had flared within her chest. "That's why she's the savior but I don't understand-"

"Don't you? I made the curse so that it could be broken when our dear Sheriff Swan found her one, _twoo_ love. And she has, as I think you well know."

The look he gave her was significant and Regina felt the denial welling up in her throat even as her heart misstepped at the confirmation. "Me? That's impossible. I already had my true love- He's long dead, as _you_ well know."

"You had your first love, maybe even pure love, dearie, but it wasn't _true_. It's only a matter of time now." Gold gave the globe sitting atop the counter next to him a casual spin, finger tips trailing across its surface as it turned round and round. "I suppose you could try to send her away again- but I think we've well established just how stubborn Miss Swan can be when she wants something and you've given her every reason in the world to be wanting. I'd start looking for places to hide, if I were you. I don't imagine it will be pretty when she realizes just what it is she's fallen for."


	11. Chapter 11

True Love's Kiss (11/?)

Fandom: Once Upon a Time

Rating: T. There be language.

Pairings: Swan Queen

Disclaimers: Don't own the characters or anything else from the show. Just borrowing for a bit.

Summary: Determined to break the curse holding his town in thrall, Henry Mills has an epiphany. Eventual Swan Queen.

A/N: So this didn't quite go the way I planned to (Believe it or not I do have an outline. It's not very sophisticated, something like "Scribblescribble-KissyFace-Scribblescribble-Batman-ScribbleScribble" but it does exist) but I actually kinda like it. Anywho, all the love is much appreciated. You guys rock. Happy reading.

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Mary Margret couldn't quite bring herself to look Emma in the eye. She hadn't seen much and it had been a fairly PG eyeful to boot, but it still made her skin crawl to think of it. She went straight from the coat rack to the kitchen, needing something, anything, to do with her hands. "Of all the people in Storybrooke- Of all the people in all the world-"

"You're being over dramatic." She knew Emma had followed her from the scraping of a kitchen chair across the floor and the audible thud as the blond flopped her weight onto it. She knew too that the statement had more than likely been accompanied by an annoyed roll of her roommate's eyes.

Mary set a pot down on the stove a little harder than she had meant to, wincing at the metallic clang that followed. "Oh Emma, I'm really, really not. Are you sure you've thought this through? What about Henry? What does he think of all of this?"

"First of all, there is no 'all of this'. Just two, consenting adults, consenting with each-other. And actually, he's kind of thrilled."

Mary leaned against the cupboard door she'd pulled open, halting her hunt for the cocoa powder. "Really?"

"Yeah, I haven't figured that one out either." There was tapping, Emma rocking backward and forward on the rear legs of her chair. The urge to tell her to straighten up (Followed by a largely inappropriate "Young lady!") was almost irresistible.

"But she's... She's kind of _evil_, Emma. What about all the things she did? Arresting you-_Twice_-"

"She was trying to protect her kid. My kid. Our kid. I can't exactly hold that against her."

_Click, click, click_ and the burner on the stove flared to life. Mary finally caved, turning around fully to face the decidedly petulant green eyes that had been boring into her back. "What if she's using you?"

"For what? Even if she had some angle she'd have more than enough material to work with by now. Anyway it's not-It's-She cares about me, okay? I know she does." There was a softness under the fierceness of Emma's assertion, a glimmer of the vulnerability Mary had only rarely gotten glimpses of.

"You love her don't you? Oh my God, you actually_ love_ her."

"So what if I do? You were all about me 'letting down my walls' before."

"_Yes_ but- not with her!"

"What do you have against her anyway? I know she's not exactly personable but what has she ever really done to you?"

Mary Margaret opened her mouth and just as abruptly closed it again, brows knitting together. The problem was, she couldn't exactly recall. There was something there, lurking in her memory, almost like a dream that she just couldn't bring into proper focus. She reflexively twisted the emerald ring on her finger round and round, as though that might somehow help her remember. "Actually... I don't know."

"Well there you go then." Emma slapped her palms to the table with an air of finality, using the force of the gesture to spring to her feet.

Mary didn't want to let it go, she felt a little bit like she was fighting for her best friend's very soul, but couldn't really see any leg to stand on. "Just promise me you'll be careful? The last thing I want is to see you get hurt."

"I appreciate that, I do, but I know what I'm doing."

Watching her hop up the stairs, with a little extra pip in her step, to go about her nightly ritual, Mary dearly hoped she was right.

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Late Sunday afternoon when Henry was roused from his reading by knocking at the front door he wasn't surprised to peer through the peep hole, straining on the tips of his toes, and see Emma standing there. He was more surprised that it had taken her until this late in the day to finally show up. Lately, whenever Emma wasn't working she was with them.

Sometimes even just with his mom. They were, Emma had told him awkwardly one afternoon, _dating._

Which meant very shortly they would be kissing, which meant breaking the curse. He hadn't worked out exactly what that might entail (Would every one just remember or would they all be sent back? The book didn't specify.) but he was a little more excited to see her each and every time. Would this finally be the day?

"Hey kid. Is your mom around?"

Henry froze in the middle of the foyer, causing Emma, who had followed him in, to nearly collide into his back. She cursed, but he was too busy trying to think of the last time he had actually seen his mother to notice. She had left sometime after breakfast, kissing his forehead in a distracted sort of way and telling him to under no circumstances go outside.

She hadn't been back since.

"Actually... No. I don't know where she went."

Emma didn't say anything but Henry could tell that the news didn't sit particularly well with her. That little dimple that formed at the corner of her mouth when she was worried about something seemed to take up permanent residence for the evening and when they settled in to wait with a round of video games she lost far more than she usually did. When video games progressed to a movie that had the blond nodding off on the couch beside him, the cellphone she had been checking periodically slack in her hand, Henry finally decided he had to do something.

Emma would likely strangle him if she knew, but looking at her and the dark circles under her eyes that he hadn't noticed earlier he couldn't quite bring himself to wake her. He stole upstairs and slipped into his shoes, leaving the laces unknotted in his haste, securing his coat, gloves and scarf as he went. It wasn't until he had flicked on his flashlight to check the batteries that he realized he didn't really know where he was going.

Something had happened, obviously. Something that Emma thought his mom might find distressing. Where would a distraught Evil Queen go?

He cast around, finally settling on the book, haphazardly discarded on his bed where he had abandoned it earlier, opened on the story of the Huntsman, and could have kicked himself for not thinking of it sooner.

Where did anyone go when they were upset?

Someplace they found comfortingly familiar.

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"Daddy, I'm conflicted." He had always been the one she turned to for advice, though even now she couldn't really explain why. It wasn't as though he he had ever given her anything remotely helpful; even his love was a paltry gift at best. It hadn't saved her, hadn't bid his cowardly spine to stand up for her when she'd so obviously needed him to.

Yet there she stood, before a dusty, empty grave talking to a ghost as though it might offer her more solace in death than the man had ever done in life.

Regina had already placed the flowers on top of the fake casket, the same bouquet she had purchased every Wednesday for the last twenty-eight years. The brilliant white petals were what she chose to focus on as she leaned against the solid stone, her fingers clutching at the smooth surface. The sweet scent of them stuck in her nose and turned her stomach, failing to sooth as it usually did.

"I'm... I'm happy." It felt so strange to admit it. Happiness had been the dream she had chased for the entirety of her adult life. Every thing she had done, every heart she had ripped out, every soul she had crushed, the dark curse she had enacted, all had been done in pursuit of it. To stand there and finally, _finally_, have it felt a little like winning a long drawn out war. Gods knew enough blood had been spilled over it.

"I have a son. He's beautiful. You would have doted on him horribly, I think. I have a... I don't know. I love her. I didn't think I could but there she is and I do." That was strange too. She had thought her only chance at love, deep romantic love, had died with Daniel. To suddenly find that it hadn't... Well, maybe it_ was_ fate. Maybe all that came before had happened to bring her here. "It's not better, exactly. It's different."

True. The most powerful magic of all. Not gone forever, just delayed.

The wind howled balefully outside, pushing a flood of dried and browning leaves in the open mausoleum door. More ghosts, whispering in the night.

"I'm happy. And I think... I think I have to let it go."

The thought of Emma loving her, touching her, never knowing, always thinking her _worthy_... It was too much.

At the same time that deep, selfish part of her that she'd always paid more attention to wanted to hold on even tighter. She wanted to take all the blond had to give her and enjoy it because damnit, hadn't she earned it by now? There was no fairy godmother to swoop in and grant her wishes. She had to take and take again or all she would do was loose.

"I don't know what to do."

"Mom?" Regina thought at first she had imagined it, brought on by her melancholy mood, but then there he was, a small shadow standing in the doorway, clutching his flashlight and pink around the ears.

"Henry! What are you doing here?"

"Emma came by, she wanted to see you but you were gone and then I remembered that I hadn't seen you either and I thought..." Henry shrugged, humble enough to look guilty for yet again defying her instruction to never, ever leave the house but not exactly sorry for it. "I was worried. I didn't know where you'd go but I thought of this place and here I am." He rocked back on his heels, smiling sweetly, and then added as an afterthought, "It's not Wednesday."

"No, it's not."

"You're thinking about them, aren't you? The people you hurt. Emma healed your heart, didn't she? You can feel it now."

"Not exactly."

He would probably never know it, her darling boy, but his arrival had made the decision easy.

"I have to do something Henry, something that will hopefully give me the strength for what needs to happen but I'm scared."

He was frightened too she thought, glancing sideways at the pale little face almost hidden by the thick scarf wound around his neck. Who wouldn't be, alone in the dark with an evil, evil queen?

"Do you think you can help me?"

He nodded, standing just a little bit straighter. It marked just how repaired the broken strings between them had become that he didn't sneer and push her away.

She braced herself, pushing the coffin until the hidden staircase was revealed in the floor. A little gasp sounded behind her and she couldn't help but smile.

He'd always suspected but it must be something like Christmas to suddenly have something tangible to confirm it.

"Then take my hand and don't be afraid."

She reached for him then and his little fingers twined around hers like a lifeline.

When they reached the wall, the vault that had once contained nearly a dozen hearts but now held only one, Henry froze in place. He knew what it meant of course, had seen the pictures in that damned book.

"Relax, dear. The only heart left in here is mine." His fingers tightened around hers at the admission. The book wouldn't have mentioned that, probably. She hadn't scrutinized anywhere near as closely as she probably should have, but she had gotten the distinct impression that it didn't mention much of _her_ story at all. She was just the villain, a foil even, for dear sweet Snow.

She relinquished her grip on his hand, though she was sorry to loose the warmth of it, and approached the wall alone.

It responded to her presence, the shelf she wanted sliding open without any conscious thought. It wasn't until she reached inside, raising up on her toes to get at it, that she realized it was empty.

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	12. Chapter 12

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"When I was given the dark curse- When I took it, I was told that enacting it would leave a hole in my heart that could never be filled. So I took it out. You can't put a hole in something that's no longer there." They were sitting foot to foot across from one another, backs against the cramped walls of the heart chamber. Henry's flashlight was clutched to his chest and pointing up at his chin, as one might do when telling stories in the dark, forgotten as he soaked up every bit of the new information she was imparting to him. She had her own head tilted back against the cold, unforgiving stone, so that she might stare at the ceiling rather than look him in the eye.

"I... I got used to it not being there. Everything was just so much easier with my pain muted and distant. So I never put it back. But Henry, if we break the curse and we get sent back to the old world and I don't have it-"

"You could die." He sounded so small, his eyes wide at the prospect.

Regina hadn't thought of that actually, more concerned with who might get their hands on it, but she supposed it could be possible. Everything she had brought over with her had been very carefully arranged prior to the curse's enactment. The same wouldn't be true in reverse. The heart in it's little golden box might remain behind, in which case the threads binding organ to body could very well be severed.

"Yes."

"Then we'll just have to get it back. Do you know who would have taken it?" His voice grew stronger, determined, at the prospect of a mission. A _quest_.

"I have an inkling." Who else really? Who else would guess at what actions she might take to preserve her heart and then know where to look? He knew her so well, had always done from the first time he had stood before her, offering power to a scared young girl who'd thought her only recourse was to run away. Because he was, as he'd said,_ 'Invested in her future.'_

"Then let's go!" Henry scrambled to his feet, nearly tripping over his laces in his excitement. He'd left them untied again, though she had told him a hundred times and more not to. "What are you waiting for?"

"It's not that easy, Henry. He'll know we're coming." He had orchestrated everything else, after all. She couldn't imagine what his end-game might be but he obviously had a plan, one that he had been working on for a very long time. "He's going to want something. He always does."

She didn't want to say it, wasn't anywhere near self sacrificing enough to put it into words, but she suspected it was probably something that wouldn't be worth it in the grand scheme of things. Something simple on the surface that would only bring her little family further pain.

"We need Emma. She's the Savior, right?"

"Right." She had been hoping, really, that Emma would never know. Armed with her newly restored heart she would go to her, share their first and last kiss and it would be done. She would run if she was lucky (Or be executed if she wasn't.). She would never have to explain the things that she had done. She wouldn't have to see the look in the blonde's eyes when she realised fate had handed her a 'one true love' that was tainted. It would hurt; a life without the one woman in all the worlds who was meant just for her and the son they shared between them wouldn't be worth much at all, but then hadn't her entire life been about pain?

That wouldn't be happening anymore. Henry would never be able to sit on his new knowledge quietly. It might be nice, anyway, to have someone to support her, just this once. "Right. I'll have to tell her... Everything."

"True love is stronger than anything right?" Henry said, smiling in a sweet, hopeful way, completely unaware of the knife those words made to twist within her. Had everyone known before her? "So it'll be okay."

Maybe. Or maybe the truth would have Emma running for the hills and none of it would matter anyway.

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When Emma awoke, the repetitive music of the DVD's main menu just annoying enough to pull her out of her dreams in spite of her exhaustion (For all her bluster, Mary Margaret's words had stayed with her all night, causing her to toss and turn as she entertained dangerous 'what if's.) she realized she was alone.

Regina hadn't returned and Henry had presumably gone up to bed.

She stretched languidly, peering once again at the screen of her cell but there were no waiting alerts to tell her she had missed any calls or messages. She hadn't wanted to jump to any conclusions earlier, after all it wasn't so unheard of that her always busy lover would have gone off to run errands and lost track of the time. Now, however, with the hour growing close to nine, she was beginning to experience genuine concern. It seemed unlikely that she wouldn't be called if there had been some sort of accident, being the Sheriff, but that didn't stop the worry from niggling at her, gnawing at her stomach.

She made a few attempts at calling the other woman that went unsuccessful before resolving that there was nothing for it but to take the cruiser around town once. Just to make sure the Mayor's little black Mercedes wasn't off in a ditch somewhere.

Deciding to tell Henry, so he didn't wake and find himself unexpectedly alone, she clomped up the stairs and knocked gently on his slightly cracked door before peeking her head inside. "Hey kid, you're mom's still not back and I thought I'd drive around and see-" She trailed off, seeing that his bed lay empty, still neatly made. The fairy tale book was there, flipped open to some story illustrated with a picture of a wolf, but there was no sign of the little boy who loved it so much.

It didn't take much checking to determine that Henry was no longer in the house. For perhaps the first time she fully appreciated the panic Regina must have experienced each and every time the boy had snuck out on her. _Shit_. Where the hell would he have gone, so late at night?

Emma took the stairs two at a time as she ran back down to the foyer to throw the front door open, flicking through the contact list on her phone as she went. Regina's number rang and rang, finally going to voice mail for the umpteenth time, and Emma almost threw it in frustration. "Look, I don't know what the hell your deal is but Henry's run off and-"

There was a brief flare of head lights and then the sleek black car screeched around the corner, nearly blinding Emma as it pulled into the drive way.

"Never mind, there you are. About fucking time." Emma snapped her phone shut and shoved it in the back pocket of her jeans before she leapt off the porch. "Hey, what the _hell_-"

The car's back door flew open, emitting a little blur of brown hair and red scarf that rushed straight into her arms with a solidness that had the air rushing out of her lungs. Emma looked down to see Henry's big, dark eyes staring earnestly up at her, his hands clutching at the red leather of her jacket. "Henry? What-"

"Emma, Emma, we have to get it back! Her heart we have to get it- somebody stole it and- the curse! We have to get it!"

"Slow down, kid. Who stole what where now?"

"Henry, let her breathe. I think we'd best go inside for this, dear, you'd be better off to be sitting."

Emma glanced up distractedly to meet eyes so brown they seemed black in the lack of light. Regina was watching them from a distance, hesitant, almost as though she were afraid to get too close. "Yeah, okay. You alright?"

Regina's head jerked in a motion that wasn't exactly a nod while Henry continued to squeeze the life out of her and Emma was far from reassured.

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"This is crazy. You've got- You're ill, whatever it was Graham had somehow you've caught it. People can't live without hearts. Besides, I know you've got one." Emma glanced surreptitiously at Henry, sitting on the couch beside her, weary of innocent little ears. "I've felt it."

"You've felt the curse. Because you don't believe. You expect to hear it beating so you do but I assure you, there's nothing there."

"The curse? Are you seriously trying to tell me you're some sort of... Fairy tale evil queen? Really?" Emma looked round at Henry but of course he wasn't going to back her up, he believed in all of this too.

"Yes. Because of me, you were sent to this world alone while your parents slept unaware in a town that_ I_ constructed to be their prison. Because of me we're all trapped. Everything Henry has told you is true."

Emma was appalled to realize that her 'super power', the lie detector that had never, ever failed her before wasn't pinging. Not even a wiggle. Regina believed what she was saying, every word. There was nothing of the fever that had possessed Graham in her eyes, nothing but deadly calm.

"This is crazy."

"We can fix it. We can fix all of it. But first-"

"You have to save her, Emma, you're the savior you have to. I don't want her to die."

It was this last that moved her, made her reach out to curl her fingers against the breast bone she had thought herself so familiar with. The thought that there was nothing there, beneath the flesh and bone... She pressed her palm flat against the skin there, pushing the silky blouse the woman wore to the side so that she could shift to the left. She'd kissed Regina here, licked, nipped and marked, never really understanding the fixation her lover seemed to have but moved by the sweetness of it. Both of Regina's hands moved to cover hers, pressing it close. She waited, hardly daring to breath lest she miss it, but the sound she had grown accustomed to never came. There was no steady throb, no fluttering beat. Just thick, crushing silence.

"You see? Just an illusion. Like most everything else in this town. You have to understand, Emma... I won't apologize for what I did. I wouldn't have Henry and I wouldn't have you if I hadn't. But I am sorry that it hurt you."

Emma couldn't even begin to process the implications. If this was all true, if it was all real, then the woman sitting in front of her, the woman that she loved though she had yet to say so outside the confines of her own head, had ripped out the heart of her own father to set in motion the events that had brought them here. Her mother was across town, worrying about the roommate she thought was making a terrible mistake, completely unaware that said roommate was her daughter. The only shrink in town was a cricket. And somehow she was the one who was expected to save them all.

'_You're the hero, right? Save her.'_

She decided to focus on the immediate problem, the one she maybe had some hope of solving. She didn't know anything about breaking curses, but finding things she could do. "What do we do?"

"Tonight? Nothing. It'll keep. He's likely had it for a while now, if he wanted to kill me outright he would have done it." Emma wanted to ask who 'he' was but didn't think she could handle another revelation so soon. Was Marco's alter ego a kleptomaniac with a penchant for the hearts of evil queens? Leroy? Ruby? The more she thought about it the more ridiculous her brain's suggestions became.

"Anyway, it's well past _some-one_'s bedtime. We can worry about strategy in the morning."

Henry groaned. "How can I possibly sleep now?"

Emma smiled, glad for something normal to latch on to. "Easy. You lay in bed and count sheep until it's morning."

########

"What does it feel like?" Emma asked later as they lay in bed, facing one another but a good foot of space serving as a buffer between them. She couldn't quite bring herself to bridge the distance, still half terrified of what she wouldn't hear.

"Numb. My feelings are still there but it's like... Looking at them from a distance. Some are stronger than others. Love. Anger. That's almost like it was before. Some hit me fast and sudden but then they're gone again."

"Why now? I mean, what changed? Why did you decide to tell me... Tell me the truth? Was it just because of-" She gestured vaguely at Regina's chest, "_It_ going missing or-"

"When I was young, I knew this boy. He was a sweet, kind, beautiful boy and I loved him dearly. After he died, I tried desperately to get that feeling back. Happiness. I did... So many things. None of them worked." Regina reached for her, trailing her fingertips through an unruly lock of blond hair. "Imagine my surprise to realise it had found me, after all this time. Right here. With Henry. And with you. This world has a saying, an old adage. I find it apt. 'When you love something, set it free.'"

Emma's breath caught in her throat. "I love you too, you know."

"I know."


	13. Chapter 13

WARNING: Mild spoilers for the finale. Although really, if you haven't seen it at this point you should just drop everything you're doing and click over to Hulu for a bit to watch that shit because it's fantastic.

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She was small, smaller than she could ever remember being, spinning round and round in someone's arms. She felt safe there, in spite of the clang of steel on steel and the harsh breathing of the man who held her. David, she realized. No, not David- her _father_. Protecting her from men in dark armor, only blackness where their faces should be.

The image faded and twisted and suddenly she was in the woods, on all fours while crisp dead leaves cracked and crumbled beneath her hands. She knew somehow that it was the clearing with the wishing well, though she couldn't see the well itself, only had the vague impression of it being somewhere at her back. Mr. Gold was standing before her, of all the people her brain could decide to dream about, but he didn't quite look like himself. His skin almost seemed to glitter, his eyes so dark none of the whites were visible, and there was something dangling from his hands on a long golden chain.

_"Tick-Tock, Miss Swan."_

Emma jolted awake and all but fell over backwards as she scrambled away from the woman she had been sleeping nose to nose with. Regina, thankfully, didn't stir and Emma stood panting in the pale dawn light that was only just beginning to filter through the window, unable to place at first exactly what it was that had her so upset. Then the last of the residual strangeness left behind from her dreams finally slipped away and her brain caught up with her.

_'Murderer. Murderer.'_

_'But I love her. She's different. Whatever she is, she's not that.'_

_'Murderer!'_

God, she just needed to breathe. She needed to breathe and she needed to be somewhere else.

When Emma slipped into the back yard, arms bare and shivering because she had neglected to don her jacket in her haste to dress and get out of the house, she expected to be assaulted by the brilliant contrast of red and green that was the Mayor's garden. The first time she had seen it she had whimsically likened it to Eden, and Regina more of a serpent than an Eve. The apples, however, were no longer a shining, healthy crimson. They hung heavy and blackened from their branches, in various degrees of rot.

The stench of the rotting tree ruined whatever rejuvenating effects the brittle morning air might have given her and Emma squeezed her eyes shut, willing the headache developing somewhere behind her temple to go away.

It would be easy to just keep walking. Across the lawn, past the hedges to the street beyond and never look back. She could find somewhere new to live, where the curse and all it entailed would be nothing more than a distant memory. Somewhere on the west coast this time, maybe. She could walk barefoot in the sand, maybe learn to surf.

Of course, she couldn't really. The roots she had put down here had dug in too deep, gotten too entangled.

The screen door snapped as it opened again and Emma didn't need to look around to know who had joined her. She could almost _feel _her. What was that all about, anyway? She had never been in love before so she had nothing with which to compare it, but she couldn't imagine this intense _whatever it was_ was entirely normal. It almost felt as though she didn't have any say it and she found that particularly disturbing.

"An unfortunate side effect of your arrival, I'm afraid. I've had that tree my entire life." Regina said finally, breaking the silence.

"I did this?"

"Your weakening of the curse did this."

It occurred to Emma then that Snow White had famously been poisoned by an apple. Snow. Her mother. _God_, that was just too much to deal with. "Is this the tree? That the apple came from? The poisoned one? Are they all poisoned?" Henry had certainly seemed to think so, the one time she had tried to eat one. She hadn't thought much about it since.

"Of course not, dear. I use these all the time-I used to, anyway. That one was special, imbued with a sleeping curse. There isn't another like it."

Emma felt the ghost of sensation, hands hovering over her shoulders as the woman behind her debated on whether or not to touch her.

"Don't. Just- Don't touch me right now. I love you but I'm not ready to deal with you yet."

"It's a lot, I know-"

"Let's just get on with it, alright? Get your-" She couldn't even bring herself to say it. "It back and then we'll worry about everything else. What do I need to know?"

"There is one other person in this town who knows- About magic. About everything."

She didn't need Regina to say the name, Emma realised. She already knew. It made all kinds of sense, actually. At least in so much as anything did, at the moment. The man who pulled all the strings, the person the entire town seemed to fear even more than the Mayor. "Mr. Gold."

"Actually, he goes by Rumpelstiltskin."

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Sending Henry off to school was a small battle, but they had mutually agreed it was the safest place for him. Emma finally fed him something about keeping an eye on 'Snow White' to get him to concede but it was only after he'd exacted a promise from her not to kiss his mother until he got home (Which she agreed to largely because she didn't understand why it mattered to him so much) that he willingly went.

They waited, together but separate, until he had disappeared in a throng of children on the school's front steps before furthering their discussion of their next move forward. Emma plunged her hands into her pockets as they walked down the sidewalk, lest she give into the temptation to twine her arm around Regina's. Her body still wanted the closeness regardless of her inner confliction.

"So... What? We're just going to march in there and ask for it? That's the exact opposite of a plan. That's a non-plan, Regina." Emma had her gun and the shining sheriff's badge at her hip, but she felt like she should be better armed for the confrontation. If she was to be a fairy tale hero, shouldn't she have something... big and pointy? A hammer, she decided, or an axe. Like that dwarf guy in the hobbit movies. She could totally rock that.

"Rumpel is a man who likes his deals, dear. He'll have done everything he can to ensure we won't be able to get it back in any other way. The ham fisted approach wouldn't work in our favor anyway, he has power over me."

"Wait-What?"

"It's stupid. I thought he would forget just like everyone else and I wouldn't have to worry about it. Just- Pray he forgets his manners."

"I don't suppose I could just arrest him?"

Regina laughed, the sound deep and throaty. "I would dearly love to see you try and explain that one in court."

"These people are all from- where you're from." Emma stopped on the street corner, waiting for the light to turn even though there wasn't really enough traffic to impede their progress. She needed the extra thinking time. "Maybe we can work something out."

"Yes, dear, but they don't _know_ that. They're bound by the rules and norms of this world and the memories the curse gave them. If you tried to explain to any one of them how I magically removed my heart and it got stolen, they'd think you insane. And if they did believe you they'd be locking me up right along side him- ripped away the happiness of untold millions, remember?"

Emma released her breath in a deep, heaving sigh, watching it mist in front of her like so much white smoke. "How could I possibly forget?"

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Mr. Gold- She couldn't call him Rumpelstiltskin just yet, even within the confines of her own head; madness lay that way- was behind the counter tinkering with an aged looking clock when the little bell above the door tinkled to announce their arrival. Emma felt a little like a cowboy in some corny old movie, barreling into the saloon with her gun on her hip and a lady-love to save. Perhaps her sanity was unraveling anyway, just a little bit.

"Do my eyes deceive me or is that the look of a believer?"

"Where is it?" Emma demanded, covering the distance between the door and the counter in a few short strides.

Mr. Gold had eyes only for Regina, who had flipped around the 'Open' sign and turned the lock before moving forward to stand at Emma's elbow, smiling in a lazy sort of way as he braced his weight against the countertop in front of him. "Lost something, have we? Learned a little lesson about not removing things best left in their proper places?"

"Just tell me what you want for it."

"It's quite simple, really. You'll recall my potion? You know the one. I didn't use all of it, you see. I placed what remained someplace... _safe_, however I should very much like it back now."

Looking round at the twisted line of Regina's lips and the rigid set of her shoulders, Emma thought the woman may very well have a go at strangling the man across from her. Just how long, she wondered, had the power play between these two been going on? Had they spent the last twenty-eight years, the only two people in town with any awareness, playing constant mind games with one another?

"Ooookay, sounds easy enough. Where is it, this... Potion thing?" Emma asked with a pained wince, hardly believing she was standing in the middle of a pawn shop having a serious conversation about potions. With Rumpelstiltskin and the Evil Queen, no less.

There was a bad joke in there somewhere, she was sure. _'The Evil Queen, Rumplestiltskin and a blond walk into a pawn shop...'_

Gold still didn't look at her and Emma felt mild irritation at being ignored. His eyes glinted with dark amusement, reminding her a little of a cat who knew it had its prey cornered. "Tell me, Your Majesty, is our friend still in the basement?"

"You twisted little imp! You left it with _her_?"

"Not with her, dearie. _In _her."

"_In_-?"

"Wait, who's in the basement? What basement?" Emma blinked between the two of them, growing more and more confused by the minute.

"_In_. You needn't look so concerned, I have every confidence in our dapper young Sheriff's ability to retrieve it. She is, after all, a product of the magic. It's only fitting."

"Absolutely not. It's my heart, I'll fetch your damn potion." Regina snapped, and she brought her hands down on the glass surface between them with an audible thud that sounded painful.

Emma, feeling a little like an eavesdropping child, imagined herself close to hysteria. What exactly was Gold trying to get her into? "What basement? Who's _her_?"

"Come now, it's more poetic this way wouldn't you agree? The White Knight, off to save her true love's heart?" Gold hobbled the short distance over to one of the cluttered cupboards behind him, retrieving a long, black case that looked like it was meant to hold a guitar. He set it almost reverently before Emma, popping the clasps and pulling open the lid with an theatrical flourish. "In any case, you'll be needing this and as I recall sword play isn't one of your skills."

An ornately crafted sword lay nestled in the box's red velvet innards, the steel of the blade gleaming in the shop's dim light. Regina took one look at it and scowled darkly. "My, Rumpel. You've been pilfering things all over the place, haven't you?"

Emma reached for the sword before consciously making the decision to do so, hand hovering over the hilt. There was something about it... Somehow, someway this blade was meant for her. She could feel it in her very bones. "Whose is it?"

"Your father's."


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: This is what happens when I have several days off and nothing but time. I meant to make you wait but then it was done and I thought, well, may as well. Frees me up to get started on my next project. Anywho, I hope you've enjoyed the ride. Thank you for all the kind words and favorites and whatnot, it means a lot.

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"'Storybrooke Public Library'. I never even knew this was here." Emma stood with the sword clasped loosely in her hand, peering up at the sign that she had failed to see before though she must have passed the dilapidated building dozens of times.

She had felt a little strange walking down main street with a very obvious piece of medieval weaponry hiked over her shoulder like a baseball bat, but, _when in crazy town_. At least there hadn't been anyone loitering around to see. She didn't feel like stopping to explain to the townsfolk why their sheriff was strutting around with a sword.

"_Really_, dear? You never noticed the giant clock tower in the middle of town square?" Regina's massive ring of skeleton keys jingled in her hand as she slid one into the lock (And it was both amusing and disturbing to imagine what the woman had gotten up to with those- It was entirely too easy to imagine a bored mayor, creeping on her citizens.) with a metallic click of the door's tumblers.

"Of _course_ I did. I just saw it was all boarded up and I never really looked any closer." Emma followed Regina inside, immediately assaulted by the stale, musty air. The lights flickered on to reveal a cobweb laden circulation desk and peeling green walls lined with filing cabinets- Card catalogues, Emma realised, and she wondered if there was actually anything in them. The room's most interesting feature, however, was the back wall, decorated with a mirror shaped something like a tree. Emma met the eyes of her own pale reflection and scowled. Her blond curls were looking a little on the scraggly side, dark circles like bruises beneath her eyes. She had the look of someone who had been on a bender without the benefit of a drunken haze.

"You weren't meant to. No one was. Hence the ramshackle."

"You telling me in twenty-eight years nobody ever once said, 'Hey, what's _actually _wrong with the library?'?"

"Mindless villagers trapped in time, dear. They never questioned anything."

It was comments like these, spoken so wryly, that made it easy to see the woman as a former fairy tale villain. As much as she had clearly changed there was just as clearly a part of her that enjoyed her own wickedness. Emma imagined a cackling witch, reveling in pushing her townspeople around like little pawns on a chessboard.

Regina crossed to the mirror wall, laying her palm flat against its surface. For a moment nothing happened. Then somewhere out of sight something clicked and clanked and the wall began to move, revealing the rusted cage doors of an ancient looking elevator. Startled, Emma took a step back.

"Woah."

"When you get down there... Be careful, Emma. Trust your instincts and whatever you do... Avoid the head."

"Head? Wait, what head? What's down there? What exactly is it you're expecting me to fight?" Emma felt the stirring of anxiety in her stomach. She had only the vaguest impression of what she was meant to be facing. Female. Angry. Somehow able to contain a magic potion.

"An old friend."

"So why don't you just talk to them?"

"Trust me when I say she doesn't want to see me." Regina looked away, though her expression remained hard and unreadable. As sure a sign as any that she was feeling guilty.

Emma feared she was going to grow tired of the question, but she had to ask, "What did you do?"

"When I brought her here I... I trapped her in another form."

'_Ladies and gentlemen, my girlfriend the queen...' _"What _form_, exactly?"

"Just mind the head, dear, and remember the underbelly is her weakest point. Get in."

Emma hesitated before stepping inside the elevator, feeling the need to say something profound but completely lacking the words. Regina's eyes were darting all over the blonde's face, as though trying to memorize every line, teeth worrying at her full lower lip, and Emma thought she might just kiss the other woman in spite of her lingering doubts and fears (The guilt she felt over breaking her promise to Henry was easily enough dismissed; He would never even know.). She even went so far as to lean in, but Regina stopped her, placing a single finger over Emma's mouth as though shushing her.

"Save it. Think of it as further motivation to come back to me in one piece."

And then her hand was on the lever and Emma was being lowered down, past the floor into darkness.

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When the elevator finally settled on the ground Emma gave her eyes a moment to adjust before stepping out into what looked like and extremely large underground cave. Connected to the mines probably, the ones that had caused them so much trouble back when she had first been named deputy. There were lights strung up at intervals but the glow they provided was far from sword felt heavy and awkward in her hand as inched her way cautiously into the larger chamber off the tunnel that led away from the elevator, weary of the as yet unnamed creature waiting for her.

A low hulking shape loomed in front of her and as she got closer she realized it was a coffin; A coffin made of glass and winding branches. It was cracked and broken now but she knew from the pictures in Henry's book it had once been eerily beautiful.

Snow White's coffin. Suddenly she couldn't breathe and Emma leaned her back against one of the lurking boulders strewn across the cavern, willing her heart rate to return to normal. Snow White's coffin, her mother's coffin, where the woman had once upon a time slept an enchanted sleep until her prince came to save her. How could any of this be real?

It was then that the rough surface beneath her fingertips began to move and Emma felt something rumble, a growl that vibrated in her chest like a drum beat. Startled, she jumped away, nearly dropping the sword in her mad scramble.

The first thing she saw was the eye, giant and yellow and glowing like a lantern in the dim light, then the horned head rearing back on the long serpentine neck, the wings unfurling, finally a long pointed tale snapping side to side.

A dragon. Only Regina, completely batty Regina, would keep someone trapped as a dragon.

Emma ducked behind a rock formation just in time to avoid a jet of flame and suddenly had reason to appreciate Regina's concern about the beast's head. Flakes of rock broke off from the force of the blast, lodging in her hair and misting against her face in painful splinters. She threw an arm up to cover her eyes and looked down at the sword still clutched in her opposite hand before tossing it away to reach for the gun at her belt instead. No way in hell she was going to be able to get close enough to that thing to actually stab it. She took one deep, belly expanding breath and then darted out from behind her cover.

It was a mad dash and scramble, dodging bursts of steam and fire and ducking beneath a lashing tail and raking claws as she unloaded bullet after bullet into the dragon's thick hide. They all bounced harmlessly away, no matter how true her aim, until finally she was pulling back the trigger to a dull, empty click. She dropped the useless weapon, looking around for anything, _anything_, that might help her somehow survive. Something shiny caught her eye and there was the sword gleaming on the ground where she had left it. She dived for it, fingers wrapping around the hilt as she rolled to her feet and sprung around, the dragon still turned away and flailing from the last shot she'd taken at its face.

"HEY!" When the dragon turned to face her she knew only fear and crazy adrenalin, and perhaps that was what drove her to throw the sword, heaving with all the strength left in her body, for she had no conscious idea of where the strategy had come from.

The blade sunk into the dragon's massive belly and the beast let out one last bone shaking roar before exploding in a flood of ash and smoke.

Emma stood, chest heaving in the aftermath, not quite believing that she had actually done it. She was still alive, all of her bits accounted for.

When she finally came back to herself she crept, loose pebbles skittering beneath her boots, towards the remains to see a large golden egg, covered in intricate designs and markings resting alongside her father's sword on its bed of ashes. This could only be the potion she'd been sent for.

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When Emma emerged from the ground, face stained in ash and the red leather of her signature jacket muted by dust, with the golden egg cradled under her arm and the sword held limply in her other hand it took a concentrated effort for Regina not to immediately rush forward and enfold the dazed woman into her arms. They still weren't okay, she knew; Her blond lover's turmoil had likely only been increased by this venture, not eased. She clasped her hands together over her own stomach instead, though she couldn't contain the relieved smile.

"I killed a dragon." Emma said when the grinding of the elevator's gears came to a halt, eyes wide, and Regina wondered if the woman wasn't in actual medical shock. She leaned her weight on the sword as Rumpel might do to his cane, something halfway between laughter and sobbing shuddering from her lips. "Dragon! The curse... It's all real!"

"Yes, dear. Yes it is."

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When they handed him the egg Rumpel immediately popped it open, freeing from it a small vial of purple liquid that seemed to shimmer as he twirled it around in his fingers.

"Your potion, as requested. Now where's my _heart_?"

Rumpel smiled, looking for all the world like he wasn't a man holding a vital organ hostage, and tucked the vial safely away in his breast pocket before ducking behind the counter. When the little golden box was placed before her Regina immediately snatched it up and was reassured by the tugging she felt somewhere beneath her solar plexus. It was there and it was safe, just waiting to be returned to its home.

"Your heart, perfectly safe and sound. Now if you'll excuse me, I have important business to be tending to."

Regina was too absorbed in the box she now held reverently in her shaking hands to pay him any further heed and was only dimly aware of the falter in the _tap, tap, tap_ of his cane as he paused on the threshold.

"Oh, and Your Majesty? Don't follow me. _Please_."

Emma was frowning in his wake, holding her father's sword in a newly determined way like she might just go after him, but Regina wasn't bothered. Whatever his scheme was, it could wait. She had her heart; There was only left to put it back in its proper place.

She opened the lid, peering in at the shuddering, glowing red muscle that seemed to beat faster at her presence and was suddenly seized by gut wrenching fear. It was going to hurt. All the pain and rage that had been bearable in this world was going to come flooding back in full force and tear her asunder. She couldn't do it.

"That's it then? Your heart." Emma's face twisted in something stuck between awe and disgust. "How do you- Do you just-"

"Emma, take it. Take it. Please. I can't, you're going to have to- Please-"

"What? Oh! You want me to-" Emma eyed the glowing red heart with uncertainty but then seemed to steel herself. She _had_ just slain a dragon. Touching someone else's heart? Perhaps not so strange. She reached for it, plucking it from its resting place and cradling it delicately in the palm of her hand and Regina felt that strange pressure in her chest, not quite painful but threatening.

"How do I do this?"

"Just put your hand here-" Regina placed her own hand flat against her breastbone. "And push. Just don't squeeze it."

Emma did as she was told, visibly flinching as her hand seemed to disappear, immersed in the other woman's flesh. "This is so weird. This is the weirdest thing I've ever done."

And then she was drawing her hand out again, the heart settled back neatly in place.

It happened all at once, the quick flood of emotion hitting her hard and fast and leaving her breathless on her knees. It was pain and pleasure and anger and sadness, all at once, and somewhere far, far away there was a clang and Emma frantically calling her name, voice high with worry.

When the world finally righted itself she found herself staring into wide, concerned green eyes, the blond having dropped the sword and knelt beside Regina's crumpled form. It wasn't, she realized, the pain that predominantly filled her but the love. Love for Henry. For Emma. Deep and intense so that the newly restored organ fluttered wildly within her. She had been aware of her feelings before, of course, but it had been nothing like this.

She sunk her fingers into the smooth leather lapels of Emma's jacket and heaved, pulling the startled blond forward into a kiss that was all teeth and tongue and then soft, smooth lips and tenderness and a wave of pure, true love rolled across Storybrooke.

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The stopper came free with an easy pop and for a moment Rumpelstiltskin admired his creation, true love in liquid form. It was genius, truly; He wasn't too humble to admit it.

Finally, _finally_, the plan he had been building on ever since he had watched his son disappear through that god forsaken hole in the ground had come to fruition. He was in the proper world, the one the blue fairy had sent his boy to, and now thanks to Emma Swan he was free to roam around it. All he lacked was power, and that was literally at his fingertips.

It wasn't without cost; He was an ordinary man here, in this place, and could readily admit to the guilt he felt for the world that had been shattered to bring them here, and for the blatant manipulation he had wrought on the life of the girl-Well, woman now, really, though sometimes when he thought of her he still saw the teeny tiny baby that had been promised him rather than the bitter, angry shell she'd grown into- who had made it possible. He was, after all, a father. Had been even at his darkest. It was that too, however, that had driven him to make whatever sacrifices had needed to be made. One soul had been the price to get him to this world, and he had payed it. For Bae's sake. Anything for Bae.

He finally let the vial drop, down into the well that was said to return things that were lost, all that remained of Lake Nostos. He watched its progress until the glowing purple liquid disappeared from sight. When it finally hit the water smoke began to spill over the lip of the well, thick and purple and he closed his eyes as it washed over him..

Some worlds needed magic and soon this one would have some.


End file.
